Dr. Mehdi Navab, Board Members Director
of Sepehr-e Bam Charity Foundation
The Earthquake
in Bam:
In the
morning of Friday, December 26, 2004, two powerful quakes razed 90 percent of
an ancient town to the ground. At first, it was not imaginable that tens of
thousands of people had been buried under the rubble or died and thousands had
been injured. Many people suffered disabilities like spinal cord injuries.
Hundreds of children lost their parents and one of the oldest signs of an
ancient civilization turned into a mound of dust and rubble.
Survivors were left alone with a sea of
sorrows and whispered: I want to sing from now to dawn… I am depressed… I am
sad.
However: when a body part is aching,
other parts cannot remain indifferent.
Employment center
for people with spinal cord injuries and women heads of households
Sepehr-e Bam Charity Foundation
Sepehr-e Bam Charity Foundation was
built in June 2004 to provide services to survivors of Bam quake. The
foundation was established through a permit issued by the Welfare Organization
and has been registered in Registry of Companies and Nonprofit Institutes
under No. 16683.
In view of the foundation’s goals as
mentioned in its articles of association and due to special needs of Bam quake
survivors, it was decided that five buildings should be constructed at various
points of Bam to take care of 150-200 homeless children. The foundation also
planned to build a center for 120 seniors and a vocational center for 120
people with spinal cord injuries in addition to a clinic and rehabilitation
center where patients with spinal cord injuries and the elderly could receive
needed services.
Since patients with spinal cord injuries
cannot be employed without assistance from healthy people, Sepehr-e Bam
Charity Foundation started to render help to women who were heads of
households, so that, they could help spinal patients while being covered by
services provided by Sepehr-e Bam Charity Foundation.
At present, Sepehr-e Bam Charity
Foundation aims to provide the following groups with needed help:
Homeless children (Children of Sepehr)
Patients with spinal cord injuries
Single seniors
Women heads of households.
External view of Sepehr Clinic
Report on Activities of Sepehr-e Bam Charity Foundation
Childcare
centers for Children of Sepehr
Centers which
work like family environment have been set up to take care of homeless
children and young adults, so that, those children can grow up in an
environment which would be similar to families as much as possible. Therefore,
five centers will be built across Bam, each building accommodating 25-35
children covered by Sepehr-e Bam Charity Foundation. The total foundation area
of the said buildings amounts to 5,000 square meters. Construction of four
centers has been finished and they have been accepting children from October
2006 to September 2007. The fifth center has progressed 30 percent and
construction operations have been halted due to shortage of financial
facilities.
External view of lonely seniors section
No. 1 childcare center for Children of
Sepehr
Hydrotherapy ward
No. 1 childcare center for Children of Sepehr:
Date of commissioning: October 7, 2006
Foundation area: 718 sq. m.
The center is hosting children ageing 3-6
years.
No. 2 childcare center for Children of Sepehr:
Date of commissioning: February 2007
Foundation area: 676 sq. m.
The center is hosting female children
ageing 6-12 years.
No. 3 childcare center for Children of Sepehr:
Date of commissioning: September 2007
Foundation area: 1,275 sq. m.
The center is hosting male adolescents
ageing 12-18 years.
No. 4 childcare center for Children of Sepehr:
Date of commissioning: September 2007
Foundation area: 894 sq. m.
The center is hosting male children and
adolescents ageing 6-12 years.
No. 5 childcare center for Children of Sepehr:
Foundation area: 1,092 sq. m.
Physical progress: 30 percent.
Construction of the last center had been
halted due to budgetary problems.
Sepehr Complex
Bam earthquake left a large group of our
compatriots with spinal cord injuries and subsequent disabilities.
A lot of men and women lost their
relatives and are living in solitude at an old age.
A great number of women have also lost
their husbands and have to take care of their children.
Since people with spinal cord injuries
should be helped to return to normal life and in view of the need to help
women heads of households and providing the elderly with means of honorable
living, Sepehr-e Bam Charity Foundation has established Sepehr Complex which
includes a vocational training center and a rehabilitation center for people
with spinal cord injuries, women heads of households and seniors.
Sepehr Complex
has been established over an area of 38,000 sq. m. and includes buildings with
a total area of 10,000 sq. m. The complex consists of the following sections:
Vocational
training, employment for people with spinal cord injuries and women heads of
households section:
Construction of
the section which is special to vocational training as well as rehabilitation
of spinal cord injury patients and women heads of households has been finished
and, thus far, two workshops for knitting and production of wiring for
tractors have been opened since September 2007. The workshops have created
jobs for spinal cord injury patients, whose number has been estimated at 150,
as well as a big group of women heads of households.
To motivate
people with spinal cord injuries who will start working at Sepehr Complex and
to give them direct responsibility for procurement of raw materials,
production, marketing and sales of products as well as to make relations
between workers and employers more transparent, Vafay-e Sepehr Cooperative has
been established in cooperation with Cooperative Department of Bam. People
with spinal cord injuries, women heads of households and a number of employees
of Sepehr-e Bam Charity Foundation are members of the cooperative, on the one
hand, while on the other hand, they are in contract with the said cooperative
and are paid wages. Since its inception, the cooperative has been managed by
Sepehr-e Bam Charity Foundation and the foundation will continue to support
the cooperative with regard to procurement of raw materials and marketing of
end products in the future.
Lonely seniors
section:
A number of aged
men and women have lost their relatives in the quake and are currently living
in solitude. Sepehr Complex has the capacity to take care of 120 seniors.
Construction of the seniors section has been finished and, at present, needed
equipment is being procured and qualified personnel are being employed.
Day clinic and
Sepehr Rehabilitation Center:
A day clinic in
addition to a rehabilitation center has been established at Sepehr Complex,
which provide various services including electrotherapy, mechanotherapy, and
hydrotherapy. In addition to serving people with spinal cord injuries and
seniors living at the complex, services are also provided to other people. At
least, three physicians (general practitioner, obstetrician, and pediatrician)
will be working there. The clinic will also provide dentistry services in
addition to minor surgeries.
Construction of the clinic and
rehabilitation center has been finished and equipment for dentistry,
electrotherapy, mechanotherapy and hydrotherapy sections have been bought and
installed.
The day clinic and rehabilitation center
were made operational in September 2007.
Service and
Maintenance section:
Since about 120
people with spinal cord injury, 50 women heads of households, 120 single
seniors and about 150 children and adolescents will be using services of
Sepehr-e Bam Charity Foundation which will be provided by, at least, 100
social workers, nurses and instructors, an industrial kitchen capable of
cooking food for 600 people at every meal (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and
an industrial laundry have been built at Sepehr Complex. The service and
maintenance section of the complex has been made operational since September
2007.
Helpers of Sepehr-e Bam Charity Foundation
Out of more than
5,000 real and legal entities inside and outside Iran who were contacted by
Sepehr-e Bam Charity Foundation for cash and kind aid since its inauguration
(in June 2004) up to the time this report was prepared (October 22, 2007),
only 199 real entities and 110 legal entities in Iran as well as 10 legal
entities outside Iran have accepted to help Sepehr-e Bam Charity Foundation.
May Almighty God reward them for their benevolence. Total contributions in
cash and kind by the aforesaid real and legal entities during this period have
amounted to 86,898,651,647 rials.
We need your help now
Tractor wire production workshop
There
are moments in everybody’s life which would be very rewarding if taken
advantage of in a good way. That is the moment when others call you for help.
That "moment" is a special occasion for you who should do good, help others
and be salved. Those who use that "moment" will be rewarded by God.
Resources that have, thus far, been used
to build childcare centers for Children of Sepehr and Sepehr Complex have been
contributed in cash or kind, by domestic and foreign benefactors whose name
and memory will be recorded on the tablet where the names of helpers of Bam
would be registered.
Managers of Sepehr-e Bam Charity
Foundation thank the Almighty God for having helped them, as depositary of
people’s material and spiritual aid, to finish construction of childcare
center and Sepehr Complex in 2.5 years and have made it operational. When in
full swing, the complex will host about 150 homeless children, find jobs for
people with spinal cord injuries (estimated at about 150 jobless persons),
find jobs for women heads of households, and take care of 120 seniors.
Thus, total number of people to be taken
care of by the center would amount to about 500 persons. In addition, jobs
will be created for 100 nurses, social workers, instructors and other service
personnel at childcare center and Sepehr Complex. All efforts have been made
to choose most staff of Sepehr-e Bam Charity Foundation out of help-seekers,
so that, more people could be covered by services provided by Sepehr-e Bam
Charity Foundation.
Annual current budget needed to maintain
activities of childcare center as well as Sepehr Complex has been estimated at
about 10 billion rials.
Your sublime ambition can help about 500
help-seekers.
Sepehr-e Bam Charity Foundation
I
……………............................................…
am ready to take part in covering
current expenses of Sepehr-e Bam Charity Foundation which takes care of
homeless children and adolescents, people with spinal cord injuries, women
heads of households and seniors in Bam city.
I vow to contribute …………………….. rials
Monthly
Annually
You may settle your cash
contributions to Sepehr-e Bam Charity Foundation to the following
accounts:
1. Rial account:
Current account No. 833000 with Bank
Mellat (Tehran), Hejrat Branch (Code; 63404) in the name of Sepehr-e Bam
Charity Foundation
2. Foreign exchange account:
Bank Mellat (Tehran), Mirdamad
branch (Code: 65078), account No.: 250145/2, in the name of Sepehr-e Bam
Charity Foundation.
After
settlement of their contribution to the above accounts, esteemed
benefactors are required to send a legible copy of their bank bill to
Sepehr-e Bam Charity Foundation, so that, a receipt would be issued to
them and the way would be paved for more contacts and presentation of
serial reports on the activities of the foundation.
Our address:
Sepehr-e Bam Charity Foundation, No.
251, 19th St., Africa Ave.,
Tehran
