DUSHANBE, November 20, 2008, Asia-Plus — Dushanbe: The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) delivered additional 8,000 medical books of 580 different titles to Tajik State Medical University within the 2nd phase of the project “Contribution to the Library of Tajik State Tajik State Medical University,” Ms. Gulnoza Hasanova, Media and Communication Officer, Swiss Cooperation Office Tajikistan, said.
Apart from the books, the project also supported procurement of printing equipment including a professional printing machine for high quantities in order to enable the University to produce their own materials in Tajik language, as well as new book shelves.
The Swiss contribution in the 2nd phase has a total value of CHF 296,000 or roughly USD 257,000. Together with the first support in 2007, SDC provided a total of 13,140 books and equipment worth CHF 496,000 to the TSMU named after Abu Ali ibn Sino.
The 1st phase of the project in 2007 supported procurement and delivery of 5’140 books, including 35 titles of different medical encyclopedias, specialized atlases and English language learning material worth 200’000 CHF. Although this crucial aid considerably improved the quality and quantity of the library stock thus contributing to more contemporary education concepts, there still remained a high demand in further support, which didn’t take long to arrive.
In 2008, SDC launched the 2nd phase of the project with additional 296’000 CHF to be spent on provision of around 580 titles of books identified by lecturers and librarians. The books were imported from Moscow.
It is recognized that a good quality education highly depends on the availability of reliable scientific literature. SDC addresses this fact through provision of up-to-date medical literature, thereby also helping students to reduce time for the search of medical literature and concentrate on their studies instead.
The support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation over the past 2 years allowed equipping Tajik State Medical University with the most essential basic medical education books. This will contribute to improving basic medical education and thereby help to address the country’s need in both general practitioners and specialists.
