MEDICAL BOOKS FROM UCLA ARE BOUND FOR IRAQ.

Byline: SUSAN ABRAM

Staff Writer

The medical books and journals, some published more than a decade ago, were of little use to their owners -- who had long gone on to become physicians and surgeons, nurses and social workers.

So on Thursday, the 2,000 textbooks were carefully boxed, labeled and piled at the University of California, Los Angeles, ready to be loaded into a Humvee and bound for Iraq.

"I happened to witness some of the looting that happened there and I thought this was a great idea," said Capt. George Zuniga, a professor of military science at UCLA's Reserve Officers Training Corp program.

Zuniga served in Iraq for 14 months, he said. And on Thursday, the 33-year-old Woodland Hills resident helped in the effort to collect and transport books to Iraq as part of a Books Without Borders Project.

The call for medical books came through an e-mail from U.S. Army Maj. Laura Pacha, a 1998 UCLA School of Medicine alumna serving in Iraq.

In a letter to the UCLA Medical Alumni Association, she asked if any books could be donated to Iraqi physicians and nurses to "help open the doors to education" and more up-to-date information.

Most of those in the medical field in Iraq are taught English, so the books are a perfect fit, organizers said.

"The war and ongoing fight against the insurgency has severely strained Iraqi medical sources," Pacha wrote. "Sectarian issues divide hospitals as well, and doctors have been moved, sometimes to entirely different provinces, in order to reduce tensions."

Upon receiving her request, members of the UCLA Medical Alumni Association and those from other health-related professional schools on campus donated their textbooks.

Dr. Patrice Healey, an alumni association board member, said the goal is to help Iraqi physicians and health care workers replenish their libraries and knowledge.

The texts and journals, which will be taken to Pennsylvania then loaded onto aircraft, are expected to arrive in Tikrit by Oct. 1 to be distributed throughout the country, said Lt. Col. Christopher Talcott, who has served three tours of duty in Iraq.

"I think this speaks to the fact that Iraqi professionals are taking charge of their facilities," he said. "This is just a start."

susan.abram(at)dailynews.com

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For more information on the Books Without Borders Project, contact Valerie Walker, director of the UCLA Medical Alumni Association, at [phone] or vwalker(at)support.ucla.edu

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Photo:

ROTC cadets load books Thursday after the Books Without Borders Project press conference at UCLA outside the Mattel Children's Hospital in Westwood. An Army Humvee was loaded with textbooks and journals donated by the UCLA Medical Alumni Association for physicians and nurses in Iraq.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

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