A number of sites belonging to the Ministry of Higher Education (responsible for colleges, universities and technical institutes) were reviewed for possible work. We met with Dr. Mahmood Sh Abdulhusain, the President of the Foundation of Technical Education. His organization is responsible for the management of the Ministry of Higher Education Headquarters as well as a number of technical colleges throughout Iraq.

The Ministry of Higher Education building is a 11 story building (12 including full basement) in downtown Baghdad, adjacent to the almost identical Ministry of Education structure. Approximately 15,000 sq meters (150,000 square feet), the project will likely take about a month to clear and clean.

We also reviewed demolition and clearing and cleaning projects at Zafrania, which is a collection of 5 technical colleges about 5 miles east of downtown Baghdad, three of which have structures damaged by looting, burning, and/or bomb damage. About 20 buildings are involved in three colleges that need the most work. About 10 of the buildings require demolition or partial demolition, including libraries, computer centers, student centers, and classroom.

Most of the damage, and the most sensitive work, is involved in clearing the site of the accounting/business school. The school is not far from a munitions dump where 40 people were killed several months ago by large explosions that scattered ammunition, bombs and other materials near the school. Coalition forces have been through the area and have declared the area cleared, but RPGs are still present on the grounds surrounding the school, and we saw a few dozen anti-personnel mines and cluster bomblets in areas a few hundred yards from the accounting school. 5,000 students normally attend this particular business campus.

Regardless, looters continue to take materials from the schools, tearing out the marble tiles in all the buildings, looting bricks, doorframes and other materials from the site. About 20 families are squatting on the business campus, making this project difficult in that way as well.

JumpStart International began clearing and cleaning the Ministry of Higher Education, an 11-story building (12 including the full basement). The building is the exact same size and appearance as the adjacent Ministry of Education Building. Both are located in downtown Baghdad.

The project will extend our work at this site for another month. The same crew of 100 workers, who were working at the Ministry of Education site will continue on this project.