Corona Covid-19 Statistics in IRAN

Iran was able to overcome the corona epidemic crisis by vaccinating 76% of the target population. Until July 11, 2022, according to the statistics, 64,647,488 people have injected the first dose of vaccine, 58,000,921 people have injected the second dose, and 27,754,172 people have injected the third dose of vaccine. Sinopharm, AstraZeneca, Sputnik V, PastoCovac, COVIran Barekat and Iranian-Australian Spikogen were the vaccines that were injected into people in Iran.

According to the official statistics of Iran’s Ministry of Health, 7,238,840 people have been infected with Corona and 141,390 people have died.

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It is the first zero daily death toll since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country in early 2020.

Iran’s Health Minister Bahram Einollahi issued a message in which he hailed the zero daily COVID death toll after the country’s 2 year and 100 days of fight against the pandemic.

Bahram Einollahi said that Iran witnessed its first day without any COVID-related deaths while high death tolls are reported in the United States and Europe.

He congratulated Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and the whole Iranian nation on this achievement.

He called on the Iranian nation to observe the health protocols until the country celebrates the end of the pandemic.

Coronavirus figures kept declining in Iran thanks to the government’s mass vaccination campaign. So far, 64,550,043 people have received the first dose of the COVID vaccine, 57,866,919 people the second dose and 27,562,033 people the third dose, and the total number of vaccines injected in the country reached 149,978,995 doses.

Coronavirus and US Sanction against IRAN

Iran has been battling one of the deadliest outbreaks in the world, with the crippling sanctions slapped on the country by the US significantly hampering the country’s efforts to rein in the spread of the virus and provide vaccines from other countries.

The sanctions were imposed by the administration of former President Donald Trump under a “maximum pressure” campaign and have been maintained by the current administration of Joe Biden, which has refused to soften the bans to ease pandemic-related hardship on Iranians.

Iranian officials have described the sanctions as “economic terrorism” and “medical terrorism” for their deadly impact on ordinary people.

The bans, however, backfired and helped the Islamic Republic rely on its own medical and pharmaceutical capacities to develop domestically-manufactured anti-COVID vaccine, so much so that the country’s health experts rose through the ranks and promoted Iran as one of the few exporters of the coronavirus jabs.

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IRAN to administer 50 mn Corona vaccines by end of summer

Iran’s new Health Minister Bahram Einollah has said that the country will break Germany’s record of weekly administering of 5 million doses of vaccines.

Speaking to reporters after attending a meeting with the Iranian lawmakers on Tuesday, Bahram Einollah, the new Iranian health minister said that the general vaccination of the Iranian people is gaining momentum, adding that the country will administer 50 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the end of summer.

He said while at the end of the previous administration in the middle of summer only 5 million doses of vaccines had been administered in the country, while after the new administration took office, the campaign accelerated and now the vaccination rate has exceeded more than 38 million of doses.

The new health minister added that the vaccination of 18-year-old people will begin very soon.

According to him, efforts are underway to vaccinate students and young people quickly.

He also said that soon all those who want to leave the country should have received two doses of vaccine, and upon their return to the country, they must have a negative PCR test in order to avert a new wave of the coronavirus in the country.

Einollah also noted that the new government in Iran under President Ebrahim Raeisi has authorized the domestic production of five Covid-19 vaccines.

Meanwhile, the spokesman for Iran’s National Task Force for Fighting Covid-19 Alireza Raeisi who said that the country has not got through the deadly fifth wave of the Covid-19.

Raeisi predicted that the daily death toll from the pandemic in Iran will decline from the current 500 to below 50 people in the middle of fall, when a large portion of the Iranian population has received both doses of the vaccines.

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Speaking to Iranian state TV on Sunday night, Health Minister Saeed Namaki issued an emergency permit to use COV-Iran Barakat in the current vaccination of the population.

He also said that the necessary permit to use Iran-Cuba jointly produced COVID vaccine will also be issued as early as next week.

The move comes amid reports of a shortage of vaccines in Iran as the vaccination of elderly aged above 60 is underway.

This is while, Jafar Sadegh Tabrizi, Director General for PHC Network Management at the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Ministry of Health said on Sunday that the country needs 120,000,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines. He also said that a new shipment of vaccines containing a million doses will enter the country in the coming days.

Meanwhile, Head of Iran’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Dr. Mohammad-Reza Shanesaz, said Sunday the Iranian citizens who have been injected with a foreign-made coronavirus vaccine might be injected with an Iranian-made vaccine for their second dose. He assured that the Iranian and foreign-made vaccines are made in the same way and with the same quality.

The National Task Force for Fighting Coronavirus in Iran has announced that the second dose of Chinese vaccine will be distributed from Saturday and the second dose of Sputnik V will also be available.

Iranian Sputnik vaccine to be unveiled

Iran’s Health Minister Namaki informed that the Iranian version of the Sputnik Covid-19 vaccine will be unveiled on Sat.

Iranian Minister Masoud Namaki vowed that all Iranians will be vaccinated by the end of Autumn by domestically produced or imported vaccines.

The Spokesman of the Iran Food and Drug Administration (IFDA) said in mid-June that the Islamic Republic of Iran joined the club of manufacturers of coronavirus, COVID-19, vaccine.

In a tweet, Kianoush Jahanpour wrote, “Islamic Republic of Iran joined the coronavirus, COVID-19, vaccine manufacturers’ club by issuing a license for emergency use of COV-Iran Barakat; Iran, Russia, United States, China, UK, and India.”

Cuban Soberana 02 COVID-19 vaccine showing 62% efficiency

The Cuban biopharmaceutical corporation BioCubaFarma announced that the Soberana 02 vaccine against COVID-19 has an efficacy of over 60 percent.

“With only 2 doses, #Soberana02 reached 62% efficacy,” BioCubaFarma tweeted on Saturday.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel tweeted that the result has been confirmed by an independent committee with the Instituto Finlay de Vacunas, but the emergency use of the vaccine is yet to be approved by the Cuban regulatory agency CECMED, Sputnik reported.

“The efficacy of #Soberana02, in its two doses, exceeds the requirements of the World Health Organization for a vaccine candidate against #COVID19 to become an effective vaccine, which is 50%,” Diaz-Canel tweeted, adding that data on the three-shot Soberana Plus vaccine will be available soon.

Cuba has developed five promising vaccine candidates: Soberana 01, Soberana 02, Soberana Plus, Mambisa and Abdala. Over 4.3 million people have participated in trials of the Soberana 02 and Abdala vaccines, according to Cuba’s health ministry.

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We are on in a shelter for homeless women in a western neighborhood of Tehran. Tehran municipality built and equipped this place with the help of donors.
One of the early challenges facing almost all cities all around the world was the shortage of face masks. And this was no exception for the shelters. In fact, given that most of the homeless suffer from long term conditions, becoming infected with the virus could have severe consequences for them. So, the shelters started to produce their own masks; thousands of them every day.

Roqiyeh Beigzadeh, Social worker: Chitgar homeless shelter for women has a bed capacity of 450. Currently around 150 people – mainly addicts and those rejected by their families- between the ages of 18 to 60 reside here. The center is open 24/7, and aside from providing three hot meals, it also offers medical and psychiatric services and consultations to individuals, and works to reunite them with their families.

Beigzadeh said: Coronavirus made our work much harder since we had to check the residents’ symptoms and disinfect the facility on a daily basis, as well as providing prevention training for them.

She added: A face mask production workshop was assembled with the help of the residents to produce, disinfect and package between 500 to 1000 masks daily.

Aida, 37 years old: The safe space this center creates, as well as the possibility of staying around the clock and, of course, the excellent rapport with social workers are some of the more important reasons convincing me to stay here for a long time. Here we have everything a woman needs. We were quarantined after the emergence of the outbreak. Our symptoms like fever were checked, and thank God I had no problem here. I go out with my friends here from time to time to take care of my personal and sometimes administrative work. There is a theater, a library and sports equipment, and I use these facilities.

Tanaz Amini, Emergency medical technician & paramedic: During this time we only had one suspicious case who was then sent to the hospital and later diagnosed with an overdose. Aside from that, we have had no other suspicious cases in the three months since the start of the outbreak. In the early days, the homeless would not accept the new health protocols and resisted them. But with the passage of time and some training, they would come to us to have their symptoms checked and make sure they did not have the disease.

This is Khavaran Shelter in southeast of Tehran with a 600 bed capacity. Until before coronavirus, its sleeping capacity was never even nearly full in spring and summer. But now, the capacity has been increased to 1000.

Abbas Nejad, Technical assistant, Khavaran shelter: The shelter has a capacity of 450 people, and it admits people from 18 to 80 years old. With the spread of coronavirus and the closure of other addiction treatment centers, there’s been an increase in the number of referrals. Following the announcement of health protocols, our job became harder. Accordingly, we disinfect the complex several times a day. Before admission, we disinfect the individuals. They have seperate beds.

Pirouz Hanachi, Tehran mayor : The 21 shelters of Tehran host about 66,000 people every month. The individuals receive three meals a day as well as medical care. Despite the fact the shelters are often crowded, we have not recorded any covid-19 since the start of the outbreak.

Tehran mayor said: We achieved this feat with help from the individuals themselves – after receiving proper training and equipment like face masks- and following the implementation of strict health protocols like constant disinfection of the facilities.

Tehran was one the first and worst-hit cities in the world. The early days of the pandemic were chaotic with people panic buying sanitary products and staple food items. But even back then, the municipality never seized its services to the most vulnerable and the needy. And that’s why no one -not a single soul- in the homeless population has contracted the disease so far; a truly remarkable feat.
We are a strong nation. We have experienced all sorts of ups and downs in recent history only to come on top successfully every single time. So, I’m sure we will put this crisis behind us with flying colors. But this doesn’t mean we should relax precautions.

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“Iranian director Majid Majidi has made some of the most visually stunning and emotionally stirring films in world cinema about the plight of under-privileged, exploited and abused young people, and Sun Children (Khorshid) is one of his very best. The story of street boys commissioned by a local boss to dig for a treasure unfolds around an urban schoolyard and the clever, freckled face of 12-year-old Ali (Roohollah Zamani), a stereotype-buster of non-stop courage. The movie won best film, best screenplay and best production design kudos at this year’s Fajr Film Festival and should be a frontrunner in Venice competition,” Deborah Young wrote.

“Majidi’s Children of Heaven (1998) was the first Iranian film to be nominated for an Academy Award in the foreign language category. Though Sun Children lacks the visual lushness and poetry that made Children of Heaven so seductive, its condemnation of child labor and the inaccessibility of basic education to the poor comes across with great force,” she added.

“Post-revolutionary Iranian films have often drawn from the well of children’s problems to outflank the censors and score their social critiques. The screenplay written by Majidi and co-scripter Nima Javidi (Melbourne) pins its outrage to a swift-moving, high-stakes plot that undercuts sentimentality and the conventions of the exploited-child genre,” Deborah Young went on to say.

“Sun Children” is one of the 18 feature films selected for the competition section and will compete for winning the festival top prize, the Golden Lion.

The 77th Venice International Film Festival will take place at Venice Lido from 2 – 12 September 2020. This will be the first major international film event to take place physically since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

Street kids are ‘whole world’s problem’: Iran filmmaker at Venice

It took Majid Majidi four months and nearly 4,000 auditions to find the dynamic street children stars of Khorshid (Sun Children), the Iranian director’s latest movie premiering Sunday in Venice.

But the five kids lucky enough to be cast – one of whom accompanied Majidi to the prestigious Venice film festival on the Lido – are just a handful of the world’s 152 million street children who face a grim future without society’s intervention, the director said.

“Many of these kids are selling items in the streets, or underground. They have the worst conditions but it’s not limited to Iran, it’s everywhere, unfortunately.”

Despite the heavy subject matter, an adventure story plot and Majidi’s ability to find humanity and humour in the face of adversity help highlight the spirit, intelligence and potential of Majidi’s young subjects.

In the film, 12-year-old Ali [Rouhollah Zamani] and his three friends help support their families through odd jobs, even stealing a tyre or two. One day, they are told a hidden treasure is buried underneath a school for street children. To dig for it, they must enrol.

Majidi said he deliberately sought a light touch, even including unexpected moments of humour that had the audience cheering at a press screening.

“The topics are already very sad, very heavy. So in order to be able to keep the viewers engaged, you don’t need to force them into a heavy, sad situation,” Majidi told AFP, speaking through an interpreter.

“I wanted to do a mixture of light and heavy and play between those so people can stand to watch this misery.”

The film is one of 18 in competition for the festival’s top prize, the Golden Lion.

Working at five

Just before departing for the festival, lead actor Zamani tested positive for coronavirus and could not travel, Majidi said, adding that the youngster was fine, though disappointed.

Actress Shamila Shirzad, 13, made the trip, however. In the film, Shirzad and her younger brother played roles that differed little from their actual lives. As Afghans without papers in Tehran, they worked selling items in the subway while living under the constant threat of their family being sent to a refugee camp.

“I was born in Iran and started working when I was five and went to school,” where Majidi found her, she said at a press conference.

Some three to four million Afghans are currently living in Iran, their situation worsened by their illegal status and the prejudice they face, said the director, whose 2001 film, Baran focused on Afghan refugees in Iran.

Majidi warned that the plight of street children was not limited to one country or region, saying the world could not afford to ignore these kids’ potential.

“These [children] are supposed to be the future of humanity, and what is happening to the future of humanity is disastrous,” Majidi said.

Responsibility goes “beyond the state,” he said.

“The responsibility is to understand and be aware of the children’s situation, and that concerns us all, not just those who govern us.”

Majidi and a number of crew members are on the Italian Lido to promote the film at the major international film event.

“What is portrayed in the film is a global issue that is not limited to one country, but the damage some West Asian countries are facing due to wars is more serious,” Majidi lamented.

“Our country has been under severe sanctions imposed by the U.S. government over the past 40 years, and at present, since coronavirus is a mutual affliction all over the globe, one of our most serious problems is that these sanctions threaten access to certain medicines,” he added.

He said that children and families are most vulnerable to wars and political upheavals, and added, “Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey and our other neighboring countries are always suffering from wars and political crises.”

One of Iran’s serious problems is that people have illegally emigrated from these countries to Iran as a result of the wars and regional crises.

The cast members of “Sun Children”, Shamila Shirzad and her brother, Abolfazl, are two children born to an Afghan family in Iran.

These two, as well as other child members of the cast, were selected through auditions that Majidi held among the children making a living from peddling in the Tehran metro.

“A key topic the film intends to emphasize is the social responsibility people have in their societies,” Majidi said and added, “Governments are not my problem in this film, but I want to say that people should fulfill their own social duties and responsibilities on each issue.”

In their Twitter accounts, Cinema Organization of Iran director Hossein Entezami and Fajr Film Festival president Ebrahim Darughezadeh praised Majidi’s remarks during the press conference at the Venice festival.

“An artist is the voice of the people,” Entezami commented, while Darughezadeh wrote, “Majidi used the opportunity at the Venice festival to condemn the oppression of the Iranian people and violation of their rights.”

Celluloid Dreams, a major French film production and distribution company, is handling international sales. “Sun Children” premiered during February in Tehran at the 38th edition of the Fajr Film Festival, which honored it with the Crystal Simorgh for best film.

Co-written by Majidi and Nima Javidi, the film also won the award for best screenplay.

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The President said that the United States, by withdrawing from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and violating UN Resolution 2231 with the aim of overthrowing the Islamic Republic, has imposed cruel and unjust sanctions against the Iranian people for the past two and a half years, adding, “History has shown that the Iranian people will not give in to the bullying and coercion of a power”.

Speaking on Monday in a meeting with the Swiss Foreign Minister, Hassan Rouhani said that the relations between countries should be based on international regulations and UN Security Council resolutions, adding, “The United States has been seeking to eliminate the Islamic Republic and interfere in Iran’s internal affairsfor many years, and Mr Trump has made a miscalculation by thinking that he could overthrow the Islamic Republic within three months by putting pressure on Iran and waging an economic war”.

Emphasising that we have been -and will be- committed to international rules and multilateral agreements, Rouhani said, “Any day that the United States decides to admit to its mistakes, make up for its illegal actions and return to Resolution 2231 and the JCPOA, the path is clear for them”.

The President emphasised, “Today, it is clear to the Americans that they have made a mistake and will not achieve their goal through pressure and sanctions”.

The President described US sanctions and economic war against the Islamic Republic, the assassination of a high-ranking Iranian military official in another country, as well as the violation of Iranian airspace as clear examples of economic terrorism, terrorist operations and air terrorism by the country, adding, “We expect all friendly and free countries in the world not to remain silent in the face of terrorism and the illegal actions committed by the United States over the years”.

Dr Rouhani stated that we expected the European countries to take decisive and explicit action against the US economic terrorism, which has even prevented the entry of drugs into Iran during the outbreak of coronavirus, calling for a more active part on Switzerland’s financial channel and its more effective and useful role.

In another part of his speech, the President mentioned Switzerland as an important country in Europe, and referring to the good and friendly relations between the two countries over the past years, emphasised the development of Tehran-Bern relations in various fields of science, health, agriculture, environment, etc.

Dr Rouhani also referred to the outbreak of the global coronavirus in many countries around the world, and expressed hope that the two countries would share their experiences in the fight against COVID-19 and develop their cooperation in this regard.

Referring to the 100th anniversary of the establishment of political and diplomatic relations between the two countries, the Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis described the relations between Iran and Switzerland very good and sincere, and stressed the development and deepening of these relations in all fields.

“All countries around the world need to know that there is a strong legal system in the world so that they can live in security; therefore, it is important that everyone, especially powerful countries, fully comply with international rules and regulations,” said the Swiss foreign minister.

We are aware of the problems caused by the US sanctions on the Iranian people, said Foreign Minister Cassis, adding, “The Swiss financial channel has been designed and launched to solve these problems and we will try increase the useful role of this channel”.

The Swiss Foreign Minister said that we are still with Iran to solve the problems and we will try to play our part, adding, “During this visit, I had very good meetings with the officials of the Islamic Republic, which can be the basis for developing and strengthening relations between the two countries in different fields”.

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Ayatollah Khamenei attended a Muharram mourning ceremony

The Muharram mourning ceremony was held at the Imam Khomeini Hussainiyeh with Ayatollah Khamenei in attendance. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, this year’s mourning ceremonies are not being held publicly.

What is the origin of Ashura?

Leila Yazdani: If we wish to find out the causes of the rise of the Imam Hussain (A.S.) we have to make a search for its preliminaries during a period of at least thirty years preceding that time, because about thirty years after the migration of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), there had taken place such developments as had made necessary a movement like this in the Islamic society.

At this time, the Islamic method underwent a change and it assumed another posture. Taking advantage of this state of affairs the people began to amass wealth and property from the Baytul Mal (public treasury) of the Muslims. It was the same Baytul Mal that was guarded so carefully by Imam Ali (AS) during the period of his caliphate.

After Caliph Uthman, Imam Ali (AS) attained the caliphate. The difficult task for Ali (AS), on account of which battles were also fought, was to control these influential persons and not to permit any person any longer to take even one dinar from the Baytul Mal of the Muslims without proper accounting. He wanted to restrain the people from all sorts of covetousness, greed, and bad habits.

Imam Ali (AS) had fought battles against Mu’awiya because Mu’awiya continuously violated the Islamic principles. Imam Al-Hassan (AS) had to swallow the bitter pill of making a peace agreement with Mu’awiya, in order to safeguard the security of the Ummah which was at stake. But, Imam Hussain (A.S.) as the Head of Ahlul Bayt (PBUH) never recognized Mu’awiya nor his followers.

When Yazid son of Mu’awiya declared himself as a ruler over the Ummah, he demanded Imam Hussain’s (A.S.) allegiance of loyalty. Imam Hussain (A.S.) on his part flatly rejected Yazid’s rule and behavior, for there was no way Yazid could represent Islam. But Yazid, the tyrant ruler over the Ummah, was adamant in his demand. Like his father Mu’awiya, Yazid used all possible means like bribery, coercion, pressure, threats, and force to receive the people’s acceptance of him as the legitimate ruler.

Many people were worried, threats to their lives and livelihood was too menacing, so they grudgingly and reluctantly gave in. But, Imam Hussain (A.S.) and his family (who practiced Islam in its true sense), did not give in. As the true representative of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Imam Hussain (A.S.) flatly refused accepting Yazid either as a Khalifa or a leader of Islam. Despite Yazid’s intimidating military power the Imam stood firm in his resolve and chose to challenge Bani Umayya’s authorities.

Imam Hussain (A.S.) also knew that giving allegiance of loyalty to an imposter like Yazid would certainly place Islam at great jeopardy. Imam Hussain (A.S.) and a majority of true Muslims believed that Yazid the then brutal ruler of Bani Ummayad was openly going against the pure and genuine teachings of Islam in public and violating the Sunnah of the holy prophet and the core practices of Islam.Therefore he decided to leave Mecca for Kufa to prepare for a confrontation with Yazid and his forces. Infact, Imam Hussain’s (A.S.) refusal to accept the tyrant Yazid’s allegiance triggered the Battle of Karbala on the Day of Ashura.

The Imam (AS) quoted the Prophet (PBUH):

“If somebody witnesses a tyrannical king who practices forbidden (Haram) acts as if they are permissible (Halal), breaks the Divine Promise, opposes the Prophet’s (PBUH) way of life (Sunnah), and oppresses people while saying and doing nothing to stand against the tyrannical ruler, Allah (SWT) will place him/her in the abode of that oppressor.”

Then the Prophet (PBUH) enumerated the crimes of the Umayyads. The above saying was used in either Imam Hussain’s (A.S.) letter or speech. It not only demonstrates his irreconcilability with the enemy and strong determination but also indicates that he would make any effort to demonstrate this heroic spirit to the society.

After arriving in Karbala, Imam Hussain (A.S.) gave his companions a speech, saying:

“Under such circumstances, a faithful person should be willing to make any sacrifice to see his Lord (God). In such a situation as mine, I would consider death nothing but salvation and living with oppressors nothing but humiliation and ignominy”.

The Islamic Ummah should never forget the event of Ashura. Definitely, Islam is alive because of the event of Ashura and the efforts of Imam Hussain (A.S.). If it had not been for the event of Ashura, Islam would have definitely deviated from its path and nothing would have remained from it. The greatness of Ashura is because of this./ SHAFAQNA

Sources:

Heroic Manifestations of Ashura, Abdullah Jawadi Amuli

A Probe into the History of Ashura’, Ibrahim Ayati

Karbala the chain of events , Ramzan Sabir

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Mohammadreza Karimiyan, the deputy head of the airport operation at Imam Khomeini Airport Company, announced the resumption of weekly flights of Iran Air between Tehran and Madrid this week, saying, “Following a series of measures by the Iranian Embassy in Spain and through the coordination with the Civil Aviation Organization, and the Airlines of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Iran Air), as well as Spanish domestic institutions, the license for ordinary flights of Iran Air on the Tehran-Madrid route, was received,” IKAC news reported.

“Accordingly, the flights will be operated on Wednesdays each week.”

The flights will depart from Imam Khomeini International Airport at 09:50 a.m. and the return flight will leave Madrid on the same day at 15:30 local time.

Karimiyan noted that currently, many flights operate from Imam Khomeini International Airport to European cities including London, Moscow, Paris, Amsterdam, Milan, Vienna and Manchester

Passengers arriving by air must provide negative COVID-19 test results in English to gain entry to Iran their PCR tests for the coronavirus must have been conducted not more than 72 hours before boarding, he added.

Based on a statement by Iran Air, passengers with Visa C (tourist visa) will not be allowed to take the flight till further notice.

The country has been trying to resume its international flights after the coronavirus pandemic hit the sector since early 2020.

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Production and distribution of face masks and other protective gears
Disinfection of public places and cars
Distribution of essential food supplies and cash handouts
Volunteering at hospitals and other medical facilities

Tehran’s Autism Charity distribute over 80,000 packs

Since the early days of the corona covid19 pandemic, the Shokoufeha Charity for children with autism, In one of the Tehran’s eastern neighborhoods halted most of its activities and instead had these volunteers prepare and distribute for free sanitary packages.

Behrouz Khosravan CEO of Shokoufeh Charity for Autistic Children said: “The Charity was founded in 2017. It has taken 70 kids under its wings, providing them with food parcels and medicine. 30 kids receive monthly pensions while we provide rehabilitation services to 45 kids at the charity’s central branch.”

Director of Shokoufeh Charity added: “The activities of the rehabilitation center were halted soon after the start of the outbreak. Therefore, our psychotherapists and occupational therapists provided families of the autistic kids with educational content online. We also prepared sanitary packages and distributed them among the families. We have managed to distribute over 80 thousand packs among supported families and across the city.”
Haniyeh Abbasi is social worker in Shokoufeh Charity for Autistic Children said: “In early February 2020, after the outbreak, the charity decided to prepare and distribute sanitary packages that include a face mask, gloves and a hand sanitizer gel among the needy to help lighten the load for hospital staff and officials alike. We hope the recipients of these packages can use them in good health. We also gave these packages to the families of autistic children under the charity’s protection since most of them are financially challenged. So we decided we could prepare these packages with the help of donors to lighten the load for them.”

Hanieh mention that: “After outbreak we started to reduce the number of the classes and instead offered online sessions. We also pay their families some cash handouts every month to help them with their medical and other daily expenses.”

Retired teacher who is member of Charity member also said: “Whoever has to deal with autistic children inevitably becomes kind and compassionate. Therefore, all these people here have been doing voluntary work without ever once complaining.”

The volunteer who took the corona

Firouzgar Hospital has been one of the main coronavirus treatment centers in Tehran, and also where Meysam Ameri was working voluntarily until he contracted the disease.
Meysam Ameri is a 35-year old graphic designer working out of his home studio in north of Tehran. Since the early days of the outbreak, He began his voluntary work by handing out free face masks and gloves in Tehran subway, and disinfecting the Grand Bazaar.
In early April 2020, he volunteered to help the fight against coronavirus at Firouzgar hospital where he finally contracted the disease 20 days later.

Meysam recounted his story of joining Firouzgar Hospital:
It was 25 of us, men and women, who joined the hospital as the first volunteer group. We had an agreement to take care of all the things left unfinished after receiving initial training. For a while, we only did office work and disinfected the exteriors until we gained the trust of the hospital staff, and were then allowed in the Coronavirus ward after receiving appropriate training.
Aside from carrying out duties like taking test samples to the lab, and taking the results back, and going with patients to get CT Scans, we – as caregivers- also helped the patients getting to, using the toilet or changing their diapers.
We would form emotional bonds with patients to make their hospital experience and their battle with the disease more bearable. We would also help patients video call their family members. Other creative things we would do include giving them haircuts and even massage! We would also make fresh fruit juice. It was a favorite with patients and the medical staff alike!
We were later received training for some more technical nursing tasks like taking blood pressure and body temperature, and reading a pulse oximeter that monitors oxygen levels in the patients’ blood.
About 80 other caregivers joined us in the meantime. Still anyone who desired could leave. So on my last day at the hospital, there were about 20 of us volunteers there.
One other interesting thing we did was to throw a surprise birthday party for one of the nurses whose wedding had been cancelled due to the pandemic. We also held a ceremony to celebrate the birthday of Imam Mahdi on Mid-Sha’ban. Just like our other expenses like the cost of gowns and face masks, the cost of holding the event was paid through donations.

Meysam told us the hospital work was heavy and stressful. He would start working after performing his prayers at dawn, and would not go to bed until well after midnight. He believes his extreme physical fatigue contributed to his disease: One night, after twenty something days at the hospital, I realized I had a temperature and I was breathing heavily. At first, I thought it was just fatigue from working long hours. I went to the emergency department and underwent a CT scan just to realize my lungs were affected. I stayed there for three days until I could breathe easier. Then I spent 20 more days at home self-quarantining.
Coughing was not one of the symptoms. Instead, the symptoms were a high fever, and severe muscle and chest pains. Three weeks after the quarantine, my breaths are still short and heavy.
But none of these pains hurt Meysam as much as the pain of not seeing his family, he mentioned: I could not see any of my family members for 45 days, from the night I was admitted to hospital to the last day of my quarantine. I have a 9-month old son and a 5-year old daughter. My son had started crawling and grown his first teeth when I got to meet him again. Separation from my wife, kids and parents was my toughest experience.

Tehran municipality and volunteer work in Corona pandemic

Tehran Municipality, with extensive coordination, provided the possibility of volunteer groups. Groups that produced and distributed masks and hygiene items, groups that disinfected places, and groups that distributed food packages to the needy were able to provide their services with the help of the Tehran Municipality.

Pirouz Hanachi Tehran Mayor during the visiting thousands of food packages prepared for the needy said: All donors, volunteers, Tehran municipality and Basij forces are working to create a database so that the process of distributing food and health packages could be done fairly.

Faezeh Dolati is cultural deputy of Tehran 7 district municipality mentioned:
The municipality of borough seven, as one of the twenty-two boroughs of Tehran, provides various services to the citizens such as:
⁃ holding entertainment activities like street carnivals in the neighborhoods. In this way, people by respecting social distance, can watch and enjoy from their homes.
⁃ Managing and coordinating voluntary services, for example We produced around 2 million face masks with participation of local volunteers.
⁃ Preparing and Distributing nonperishable food packages for impacted families in collaboration with local businesses In order to participating in social responsibility.
⁃ Transforming neighborhoods centers into covid-19 service centers for monitoring and screening to help health care system
⁃ and finally, identifying vulnerable people and those who lost their jobs due to Corona virus crisis while distributing health packages

Mehdi Shirzad headquarters office of organizing social participation in Tehran mucipality about about Tehran’ voluntary work during the lockdown said: Fairly speaking, they did absolutely great with the fight against the coronavirus outbreak, and with collecting donations. So did mosque Imams and all who do social work there. Youth volunteer groups also helped a lot in the neighborhoods. This proved that urban crisis management is almost impossible without citizens’ help. The municipality’s most important achievement was the creation of a platform to connect NGOs to volunteers. So citizens can upload their resumes on this platform and then join events organized by NGOs, or even hold their own charity events.

Tehran Volunteer group preparing 3500 hot meals every day

Mostafa Foroutan who is Heydaraneh Campaign Manager said:
A number of Volunteer groups joined forces and created the Heydaraneh movement to be able to produce more comprehensive work during the coronavirus outbreak. In the beginning, like many other groups, and since we didn’t know how to exactly combat the virus, we began our activities by disinfecting public places, and later produced and distributed face masks.
In the next phase, and on the recommendation of hospitals, we started making a gravy-like puree from quail meat extract and medicinal herbs.
The movement also managed to prepare and distribute about 4000 essential food parcels for needy families.
We also collected donations for those directly impacted by the outbreak.

Hossein Bolandimonfared director of volunteer group that preparing food said: During the coronavirus outbreak, with the help of other volunteer groups, we have been preparing 3500 high quality hot meals every day.
Making fresh fruit juice for hospitals is another thing our group has done. A supervisor from the health ministry would oversee the whole process 24/7 to make sure the product meets health standards.
I should stress that we received an unprecedented amount of volunteer help for the supply, preparation and distribution of the meals. The level of participation was much higher than during the 2019 floods and Kermanshah’s 2017 earthquake.
Iranians have proven to be people of hard times. While people in other parts of the world were forming long queues outside supermarkets, and even seen fighting, Iranians were standing in line for voluntary work. This is really valuable that people care about one another in this situation.

The 6 months after the coronavirus pandemic, about 360 thousand Iranians have contracted coronavirus, and seven thousands -unfortunately- lost their lives. The first wave of the covid-19 is now behind us.
We, the people of Tehran, have brought this malicious outbreak under control for now, well of course, with the help of the government and municipality. The exact numbers are still to be fully worked out, but estimates show over half a million Tehraners have offered some kind of voluntary service during the first wave of the outbreak.

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