|
 Printer-Friendly Version
OPA News Release: [01/28/2004]
Contact Name: Lisa
Kruska
Phone Number: (202) 693-4676
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao Inaugurates Grand
Opening of the Baghdad Employment and Training Center
Two-day Trip Highlights Democratization
Efforts
BAGHDAD, Iraq—U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao began a
two-day trip to Iraq to highlight continuing democratization efforts by the
Iraqi people. Her first visit was to inaugurate the opening of the Baghdad
Employment and Training Center. The center is operated by the restored Ministry
of Labor and Social Affairs and provides services and benefits to Iraq’s
most vulnerable citizens. Under the former regime of Saddam Hussein, the
Ministry operated the prison system. Now, for the first time, the Ministry is
establishing employment and training centers throughout Iraq, charged with
providing services to displaced workers in the nation’s largest populated
cities.
“I am so pleased to be in Baghdad to inaugurate the opening of the
Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs’ Employment and Training Center. The
U. S. Department of Labor has worked with our counterpart in Iraq early on to
help Iraqis establish a new Ministry. We hosted Iraqi officials to the United
States in the last few months that included visits to America’s $9.5
billion publicly funded workforce investment system, the One-Stop Career
Centers. To be able to be in Baghdad and finally meet the Iraqi staff and tour
the facilities of this Ministry is a very memorable experience for all of us.
The new facilities, the classrooms and the computer lab will help Iraqis gain
marketable job skills and access new opportunities for lifelong learning,”
said Secretary Elaine L. Chao. “The Iraqi Ministry staff is proceeding to
set up employment and training centers all over the country. Increasing
employment is a key element to stabilizing democracy in Iraq. Already, hundreds
of thousands of Iraqis have been registered for jobs and training and more than
25,000 Iraqis have found new jobs from the efforts of this Ministry.”
The Ministry’s career professionals administer the private social
security pension fund and welfare program, giving the nation’s children,
elderly, widows and disabled the financial means to survive. Services and
benefits offered in the Kurdish regions mirror those offered in Baghdad. The
ministry’s national programmatic service facilities include:
- 22 orphanages
- 45 day care centers
- 5 nursing homes
- 22 homes for the hearing impaired
- 3 centers for the visually impaired
- 17 facilities for the mentally disabled
- 8 disability employment centers
- 4 workshops for persons with disabilities
- 5 rehabilitation centers
- 2 centers for persons with missing limbs
Like many government buildings in Iraq, the ministry’s
administrative facilities were burned and looted shortly after the war ended.
The CPA worked with international NGO’s to complete the renovations of the
ministry.
# # #
_________________________________________________________________
| 
