$1.6 million donation given for higher education in Iraq (24/09/05)

The International Fund for Higher Education in Iraq, established by the Qatar Foundation (QF) for Education, Science and Community Development and UNESCO, has donated $1.6 million to Iraq’s Ministry of Higher Education.

The funds will be used to buy equipment

The donation was given to the ministry’s General Director of Scholarships & Cultural Relations’ Professor Dr Sabah al-Mussawyby the Chairman of the QF committee on the Directorate of the Fund, Bader Abdullah al-Darwish.

Also present at the were committe member Dr Sheikh Hamad Nasser al-Thani and UNESCO Doha Office Assistant Programme Specialist Ouidad Bounama.

“This amount is to be used to buy equipment from within Iraq for dormitories at institutions of higher education, as requested by the ministry,” said al-Darwish.

The fund provides opportunities for 500 Iraqi faculty members to attend training programmes in European and Middle Eastern universities. “We expect to train about 20 faculty members this year at institutions in Education City,” he added.

“About 80 per cent of the projects have been accomplished within a short span of time in spite of several difficulties we faced in Iraq, thanks to the continuing and committed support from HH the Emir’s wife and QF chairperson HH Sheikha Mozah Nasser al-Misnad, who was instrumental in setting up the Fund,” observed the committee chairman.

The Fund, launched with a $15 million donation from Qatar in October 2003, later received donations of $1 million from QNB, $200,000 from the South Korean government and $30,000 from Doha Bank. It is estimated that about $14 million has been spent by the Fund so far. These expenses include books, over 3,000 computers, laboratory equipment and Internet connections for Iraq’s 20 universities and 47 technical colleges and institutes that cater to the needs of some 300,000 students.

Source: Gulf Times