National Museum Grounds Project
The Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad is surrounded by a number of gardens. Additionally, the Museum has several internal courtyards, some of them clogged with sandbags and/or debris from looting at the Museum in April of 2003. In October of the same year JumpStart began work on clearing the grounds and employing some gardeners to plant grass and mow the lawns surrounding the Museum, some of which are overgrown, presenting a possible security problem. This project was relatively small, employing around ten workers for about two weeks and requiring the use of a small amount of heavy equipment such as a grader for the landscaping and a forklift for moving destroyed materials. This work was done upon special request by Mario Osio, Ambassador to the National Museum from Italy, and the Ministry of Culture.
Beautification Work
These sandbags were probably originally used in the foxholes that were dug into the ground in the land surrounding the museum during the war.