BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 5, 2004 —“This is just the first step in a long road we will share together, to improve the people’s lives in Iraq,” said Lt. Col. Gary J. Volesky, commander 2nd Squadron, 5th Cavalry Regiment, Task Force 1st Armored Division, during reopening ceremonies for a neighborhood clinic in Sadr City March 27, 2004.

With a medical staff consisting of a doctor, a pharmacist and three nurses, the clinic serves a neighborhood of 4,500 people, said Capt. Jeff L. Hembree, Alpha Company, 478th Civil Affairs Battalion commander.

Once known as Saddam City, Sadr City is named for the Imam Mohammed Sadr, an Iraqi religious leader killed by Saddam Hussein. According to estimates, there are about two million people living there in a six-square mile district, about as many as there are living in Houston, Texas.

The clinic is located one of Sard City’s more impoverished neighborhoods.

“Proper medical care for Iraqis is a high-priority,” said Hembree. “We only had to come out here to Sadr City to realize that improving this clinic would have a positive impact on the community.”

About $10,000 was invested into the clinic, he said. The clinic was closed for about six weeks for renovations, obtaining supplies and staff training.

Groundwork for the clinic’s renovations was started by a German non-governmental organization called Anamur.

“My civil affairs guys have been working with Anamur on this. You need to give them credit because they were the ones who came in and really started this foundation,” said Volesky. “We’ve just expanded on it.”

Volesky said the existing work on the clinic was expanded by hiring Iraqi contractors to work on the refurbishing project.

“Our civil affairs guys developed the project by looking at what the Germans had done and developed plans to expand it in order to work with local contractors to try and create employment for the people who are unemployed,” said Volesky. “This engages the Iraqis and gets them involved in improving their own infrastructure.”

Doing this fosters the goodwill of the people and helps build confidence, he said.

“This lets them say that they’re getting back on their feet,” Volesky said. “They can say, ‘This was built by the Germans with help from the coalition, but it was really the Iraqis who put the final touches on it’.”

Humanitarian projects such as this will be carried on into the future, Volesky said.

“We will be focusing on the basic needs of the people: food, water, electricity and trash (removal),” said Volesky. “I will maximize every resource I have because those are the things that really have an impact on the people when they see it. They are most important.”

According to Volesky his unit’s priority is to maintain and build upon the secure environment that the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment provided for the community over the course of the last year.

“We will take it to the next level and start to show the Iraqi people that the coalition is working with the Iraqis to improve their conditions day to day,” Volesky said.

The units are not just focused on the short term, he said. The goal for all of the projects is to successfully integrate Iraqis into the planning process, so that they can then take the projects and determine the long-term solutions on their own.

“The biggest goal for us is two-fold,” Volesky said. “One: Show the people we really do care about them and that everything we said we are going to do, we will do. Two: Take the Iraqi institutions such as the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, the police and the government, and develop those systems so that they can become self-sufficient.”