Dr Richard Gordon and
Dr Wassay Niazi bond over Afghan medical book project
Photo credit: courtesy Books
With Wings |
When most people think about building
peace and security in Afghanistan, radiologists and
epidemiologists don't necessarily come to mind.
But for Manitoba docs Dr Richard
Gordon and Dr Wassay Niazi, of Books With Wings (BWW),
humanitarian efforts start by rebuilding core medical
book collections in the war-ravaged libraries at Afghanistan's
medical schools.
Founded by Dr Gordon at the University
of Manitoba, the non-profit BWW has been collecting
and shipping valuable textbooks to Afghan medical schools
since 2001. His colleague, Dr Niazi, an Afghan physician
living in Winnipeg, has thrown himself into the project
to help train MDs in his homeland.
FROM
THE HEADLINES
Dr Gordon, a professor of radiology at U of M, never
expected to end up on the frontlines of rebuilding Afghanistan's
medical education. Then, one night, he caught a report
on CNN about the war that included a desperate appeal
for books from the head librarian at Kabul University.
After years of civil strife and Taliban oppression,
medical schools were in chaos, the librarian said. Students
and instructors were forced to depend on materials dating
back to the era of the Soviet invasion, almost 30 years
ago.
Appalled, Dr Gordon instantly swung
into action. He gathered a team of medical student volunteers
and helped them collect used texts and link up with
their counterparts in Afghanistan.
Six years later, BWW's efforts
have already resulted in two shipments of over 6,000
volumes worth nearly $1 million. So far, books have
been sent to medical schools in the cities of Kabul,
Kandahar, Jalalabad, Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif on pediatrics,
medical physiology and anatomy. Books on war injuries
and surgery are still badly needed in a country that
ranks in the top three of the most-mined nations in
the world.
HOMELAND
HELP
Having worked in a Kabul clinic and teaching hospital,
Dr Niazi, a former infectious disease professor at Kabul
Medical University, knows firsthand that up-to-date
medical resources are essential for training future
cadres of doctors and specialists. "The country was
completely isolated for 30 years," Dr Niazi explains.
"When the Taliban was ousted, there was a hunger and
desire for education. I am so supportive of this project,
and it is one of the most useful programs in the long
term because it will greatly improve medical training
in Afghanistan."
But Dr Niazi knows there is still
far to go. "I've seen the suffering of Afghans. While
there are clinics and hospitals in the cities, healthcare
is very limited. Afghan physicians also have a limited
ability to make thorough diagnoses, relying on patient
history and some very basic tests." He adds, rather
exasperated, "In terms of public health, there are only
four or five trained epidemiologists for a nation of
about 30 million."
To address this, Dr Niazi will
be spending November in his native country to develop
a curriculum for Afghanistan's very first epidemiology
program. The project, sponsored by Canada's International
Development Research Centre (IRDC), will train the next
generation of field epidemiologists.
Meanwhile, Dr Gordon is growing
BWW well beyond Manitoba — and medicine. There
are now chapters of BWW at the University of Toronto,
Queen's, Memorial, Western and the University of Ottawa.
"We are expanding to engineering this year," he enthuses.
And will Dr Niazi continue volunteering
with BWW when he gets back to Winnipeg? "For sure!"
he says.
For more information on Books
With Wings and how to donate money, books or volunteer
with the program, visit www.bookswithwings.ca
|
