Child and youth welfare in Iran
The child and youth services in Iran was initially understood as a purely charitable activity. It was not until the beginning of the 1960s, at the instigation of Schahbanu Farah Pahlavi, that child and youth welfare was systematically expanded as part of voluntary welfare and as a state task. The Farah Pahlavi Foundation ( Persian جمعیت خیریه فرح پهلوی, DMG ǧamʿiyat-i ḫayriye Faraḥ Pahlavī ), the Red Lion with the Red Sun Society of Iran (جمعیت شیر و خورشید سرخ ایران/ ǧamʿiyat-i šīr o ḫoršīd-i sorḫ-i Īrān ), the Society for the Support of Mothers and Babies (بنگاه حمایت مادران و نوزادان/ bongāh ḥemāyat mādarān va nozādān ), the Society for the Support of Orphans (جمعیت حمایت کودکان بی سرپرست/ ǧamʿiyat-i ḥemāyat-i kudakān-i bī sarparast ) and the National Society for the Support of Children ( Persian انجمن ملی حمایت کودکان, DMG anǧoman-i mellī-yi ḥemāyat-i kudakān ). The National Society for the Support of Children was founded in 1952 with the help of UNICEF and later continued as an independent national society.
Charitable beginning
The child and youth services in Iran in the early years was initially understood as a purely charitable activity. For example, the Farah Pahlavi Foundation (ǧamʿiyat-i ḫayriye Faraḥ Pahlavī), established in 1951, provided help and support to poor families by financing heating oil for the winter, donating clothes for the New Year or paying school fees.
Prenatal care and obstetrics
Systematic child and youth welfare by the Farah Pahlavi Foundation did not begin until 1960 with the adoption of a new charter, the appointment of an advisory board and the employment of a managing director. Like an association for voluntary welfare in Germany, the foundation had taken on the task of supporting children and young people in need and preparing them for their later professional life. The support started as early as infancy and lasted until the age of majority.
So-called infant houses (schir chaargaah) were set up to take care of newborns and infants , which took care of the free care of infants. The offer of the nurseries was aimed primarily at mothers who were unable to breastfeed their newborn children either for financial reasons or because of an illness, or for other reasons. To ensure the care of working mothers of small children, day nurseries were built in which the small children were cared for from early morning to late afternoon. In 1970, 4,000 crèche places were available.
From 1959, the Red Lion with the Red Sun Society of Iran began to become more involved in prenatal care and obstetrics . In hospitals the Red Lion with Red-Sun Society of Iran in Baluchistan , Iranshahr , Khorasan , Azerbaijan and Khuzestan was pregnant a free prenatal care and medical and nursing care and obstetrics offered. A 1,000-bed clinic (Farah Clinic) with a 250-bed department for prenatal care and obstetrics and a 250-bed ward for newborns, to which a training facility for midwives and nurses was connected, was built in north-east Tehran.
In addition to the Farah Pahlavi Foundation and the Red Lion with the Red Sun Society of Iran, the Society for the Support of Mothers and Babies (bongāh ḥemāyat mādarān va nozādān), founded in 1960, was devoted to childbirth and the care of needy newborns and small children . A school for the training of midwives was established by the company in 1963 in collaboration with the Farah School of Sisters. After their training, the midwives worked in state or private hospitals or in charitable institutions. An important activity of the society started in 1966 was family planning. Lectures were organized and educational films for mothers on the subject of "pregnancy and family planning" were shown. Society social workers went door-to-door to educate women about contraceptive measures. After the birth, the mothers were visited in the gynecological clinic and informed about hygiene measures, family planning and the nutrition of newborns. The company had two women's clinics in Tehran, including one in Molavi Avenue in southern Tehran. The clinics offered free medical care. Other clinics of the company in all major cities in Iran offered medical care comparable to that in Tehran.
Kindergartens, boarding schools and youth camps
The impetus for the construction of kindergartens (Kudakestan) for professional child day care in Iran also came from the Farah Pahlavi Foundation . State, private or privately owned kindergartens and preschools were not known in Iran. With the increasing industrialization of the country, a facility had to be created for working mothers in particular, which would enable the mothers to pursue their work without the care of the children suffering as a result. As a rule, the children of working mothers were cared for by family members. The kindergartens built by the Farah Pahlavi Foundation offered all-day care from morning to late afternoon with a total of 4,000 places if family members were unable to care for them.
In addition to regular kindergartens, special and curative education kindergartens for children between the ages of 4 and 13 and boarding schools for children between 12 and 21 years with around 2,500 places have been established. In the boarding schools, the children were offered handicraft or home economics courses, courses in simple office work or manual work. The children were released from the boarding schools at the latest when they reached the age of majority (21 years). As there were initially no special pedagogues, curative pedagogues or appropriately trained educators in Iran, the Farah Pahlavi Foundation created a training facility for educators and kindergarten teachers.
For children's leisure activities, there were two youth camps run by the Farah Pahlavi Foundation in Naivaran and Shahsabar, where children's and youth camps were held in summer and winter. In the youth camps, leisure activities with corresponding courses were offered for children and young people for a period of three weeks.
Center for vocational training
The Center for Vocational Education (Kanun-e Kaaramuzi-e Keschvar) was founded in 1959 under the patronage of Farah Pahlavi in order to provide young people and adults without school education with career prospects . The chairman of the governing body was the court minister. The individual centers set up in the country were each run by local directors. Each province received a center that consisted of a training facility for various craft trades. The centers were also involved in the anti-illiteracy program. In addition to the manual training, the students at the center attended compact courses that led to a primary school diploma. Particularly gifted children could attend secondary schools. The "Center for Vocational Education" took over the costs for further education and the livelihood of the students.
Promotion of skilled craftsmen
In addition to promoting disadvantaged children and adolescents, the Farah Pahlavi Foundation was also involved in the field of gifted children , insofar as it was not already covered by the strongly expanded state sponsorship of talented children . While the state support for gifted students mainly related to the school and academic sectors, the Farah Pahlavi Foundation's support for gifted students focused on the promotion of handicrafts and handicrafts. Handicrafts and handicrafts have a long tradition in Iran. In this respect, it made sense to support particularly talented children in this sector in a separate vocational training center for skilled craftsmen.
Support for orphans
With the Society for the Support of Orphans (ǧamʿiyat-i ḥemāyat-i kudakān-i bī sarparast) founded in 1966 under the patronage of Farah Pahlavi, an association was created for the first time, which was dedicated to the care and upbringing of orphans in Iran. Children whose parents passed away were usually raised by relatives. This did not apply to children of prostitutes. Because of this, the first children to be cared for by society were children of deceased prostitutes. Orphans who were not cared for by family members or who had lost their family members in accidents or natural disasters were also looked after. The children were initially housed and cared for in three rented houses in Tehran. In addition to the living space for the children, the company financed food, clothing, medical care and supervision and provided school care by schools in the vicinity of the houses. After finishing school, the children were able to learn a craft such as a carpenter, car mechanic, typesetter, etc. in a vocational training center.
Children's charity
The National Society for the Support of Children (anǧoman-i mellī-yi ḥemāyat-i kudakān) (Children's Fund) served, on the one hand, to train educators, nurses for children's clinics, physiotherapists and nursing staff for various health care institutions in which children are housed were.
In 1955 the first training center for nurses for children's wards was set up and in the following years it was expanded into a central training center for the teachers employed in day nurseries and kindergartens. From 1970, Madaryar (mother assistants) were trained, who could take over the temporary home care for infants if the mothers were unable to care for the infant due to an illness. Courses in modern infant care and nutrition were also offered to expectant mothers. In addition, there was a range of courses for parents with disabled children to inform them about the supportive care options offered by state or private bodies and to train them in dealing with their mentally or physically disabled child.
From 1967 the society began to give free milk powder to families in need in order to prevent malnutrition due to poverty reasons. The distribution of pasteurized milk to needy families began in 1957, and in 1964 further foods for infants were added. Later, milk powder and vitamin C tablets were distributed.
The third focus of the company's activities was on supporting families with disabled children. In the Center for Research and Treatment of Mental Disabilities (klinik-e hedayate kudak) , causes and possible therapies for children with mental disabilities were researched. Severely handicapped children were accommodated in children's homes (Saraj-e Kudak). A center for physiotherapy was set up for children with physical disabilities, where the children received free physiotherapy treatment.
In the annual Child Week, events and exhibitions were held in which handicrafts and artistic works by handicapped children were presented to a wider public and awarded with prizes.
The society maintained international relations with related societies, took part in international congresses and published its own magazine in Iran with the title “Das Kind” (kudak) as well as books and information pamphlets on the subject of “Child and Education”. Symposia and workshops with the participation of international experts in the field of therapeutic care for children with disabilities were also organized.
White Revolution
In 1975, by order of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, child and youth welfare as part of the state welfare obligation was significantly expanded. As part of the expansion of the reform program of the White Revolution , the free distribution of nutritional supplements to pregnant women, infants and young children up to the age of three was introduced.
Since July 31, 1943, schooling in Iran has been compulsory, free of charge and the same for everyone. In addition to the state schools, numerous private schools had established themselves in the meantime, which were subject to a fee. With the budget draft 1974/1975, the school law was completely revised and became one of the most important laws affecting children of all population groups. In order to maintain equal opportunities in the school sector, all private schools were bought up by the government and all teachers and employees were taken over as civil servants by the Ministry of Education. The operation of private schools was no longer approved from this point in time. From then on, school attendance was free of charge for all children. For elementary school (up to grade 6), complete freedom from teaching materials and free school meals were introduced. During the long break from 10:00 to 10:30, each child received a quarter liter of milk, a packet of butter biscuit, 100g pistachios, a banana and an apple. In the high schools operated as all-day schools, reduced-price food distribution was introduced. A scholarship system was introduced for students enrolled at universities, which granted every student a fixed monthly allowance regardless of the income of their parents (1975 monthly equivalent of 175 DM for local students and 350 DM for external students). Students with the best degrees were automatically qualified to study abroad. The scholarship for studying abroad comprised the tuition fees, if the course was subject to a fee, and a monthly allowance based on the cost of living in the respective country.
Child and youth welfare today
After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the Farah Pahlavi Foundation, the Royal Organization for Social Services, the Society for the Support of Mothers and Babies, the National Society for the Support of Children and other free welfare organizations became part of the State Welfare Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran (sazeman-e behzisty-e keschvar) summarized. The programs of the individual organizations have been bundled and adapted to today's requirements. So was z. B. launched a new program to care for street children. However, the free school lunch was canceled.
literature
- Her Highness (Farah Pahlavi) Office publication, 1354 (1975).
- http://www.dowran.ir/show.php?id=113464182
- http://sahneh.kums.ac.ir/hygiencenter-familyhygienegroup-activitiesprograms-mothershealth-fa.html
- http://www.encyclopaediaislamica.com/madkhal2.php?sid=1894
Web links
- http://www.behzisty.ir/
- Interview Schahbanu Farah Pahlavi with German television about child and youth welfare in Iran