“I am happy when I’m at the Centre. I make new friends, play with them, and learn to read from my teachers,” says Zahra, one of the children participating in Golestan Centre’s activities.
Over the last 40 years, more than 3 million Afghan refugees have fled the war in their native country to seek shelter in Iran. Their large number, however, puts pressure on the country’s ability to provide essential services such as mental health treatment and formal and informal schooling.
Refugee children face many challenges, including lack of access to education, family’s ability to afford school-related expenses, cultural barriers, discrimination, forced child labor, mental trauma due to the loss of loved ones, displacement, safety, and difficult journeys they take to seek food.
RI supports these children at the Multipurpose Service Centre in Golestan, an urban region east of Tehran with a high population of Afghan refugees. The Centre, managed by RI’s national partner organization PDA (Pars Development Activists), provides a platform to build preventive awareness, delivers a safe space for girls and women, and assists Afghan refugees in improving their overall well-being.
The Centre also provides a one-stop information point, providing children with informal education and extra-curricular activities, life skills, and digital and computer skills at no cost.
Since the establishment of the Centre in 2020, Relief International has assisted 1,036 people – helping them recover, get back on their feet, and reintegrate into their communities.
“When we first arrived in Gorgan, everyone told me to visit the Centre because they would support us in being introduced to Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigration and benefiting from registration services provided in the center, as well as classes for my children and free consultation services,” says Maryam, one of the women attending the center’s consultation sessions.