MOSUL, Iraq- In Saddam Hussein’s Iraq,  doctors made $150 a month, approximately the cost of a  textbook.   Hospitals  and universities had few textbooks and many of them were looted  at the beginning of the war.  Though Iraq’s medical  professionals are well-trained, they lack the resources to  continue and improve their education.

“The local hospitals have been using shared  photocopied pages out of textbooks for their research,” said  Maj. Michael Helwig, the Brigade Surgeon for the 3rd Brigade 2nd  Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team).  Helwig is a  1990 graduate of the University of Florida in Gainesville and a  Clearwater, Fla., native.

A group of students at the University of  Florida organized a book drive to collect medical textbooks for  the nurses of Iraq.  Faculty from the All Children’s Hospital in  St. Petersburg, Fla., also donated their used textbooks.

Helwig, along with Lt. Col. Walter Franz  and Sgt. Rory Tedrick from the 416th Civil Affairs Battalion  Public Health Team, distributed approximately 500 of these  donated textbooks to nurses from the Ninevah Province Ministry  of Health on September 21. 

The textbooks will be divided between the  area hospitals and universities in Mosul, Irbil and Dahuk.  

Tedrick, a Philadelphia native and a  nursing student at Temple University, is working to promote a  nursing partnership between nurses in the United States and  Iraq.  He is working to establish an ongoing textbook donation  program to continue this network of support between nurses.

Improving the quality of Iraq’s healthcare  is important to the well-being of its citizens as they prepare  for free elections and a promising future as a democratic  nation.