SCHOOLS PROGRESS

The company had to work from scratch compiling school records as the education ministry was gutted and looted during the conflict and computer systems destroyed.

Three months later, the company has finished an inventory of more than 3,785 secondary schools across Iraq, excluding two areas which remained too dangerous. Japanese teams are focusing on elementary schools.

The inventory found schools in ''various states of disrepair,'' suffering from Saddam's neglect and some damage from the U.S.-led invasion and the mass looting that followed.

Girls accounted for just 38.4 percent of the student population and Creative hopes to boost enrollment with an accelerated learning program targeting girls in particular.

The inventory showed many schools, for example, lacked basic bathroom facilities. ''You can't expect young girls to go to school if you don't address that issue,'' said Bolivian-born Kruvant, who founded Creative in 1977.

SMALL GRANTS REAP DIVIDENDS

The company hopes to have all schools open by October and has bought 1.2 million ''back to school'' kits for the start of the new school year. Finding secure warehouses to store goods has been a headache.

Winning the trust of Iraqis, many of whom are suspicious of the U.S. invasion, is also a challenge. Handing out small grants to rebuild schools paid dividends in getting Iraqi support.

''These grants might appear very small, but $20,000 in a community that has been neglected for so long, brings the local leadership together,'' said Kruvant. More than 200 grants worth over $4 million will have been approved by the end of August.

Creative has distanced itself from the sensitive task of ''revising'' school textbooks and stripping them of Baathist language. That job went to U.N. agencies, who while removing pro-Saddam language are leaving a major rewrite of books to a new Iraqi education department.

The company says it will have enough teachers in place for October and is relieved it did not have to weed out hard-line Baathists. ''The local community has dealt with this and driven them out,'' said Dick McCall, director of Creative's Communities in Transition Division.