Iran's new breed of charities on poverty frontline
[ad_1] TEHRAN: At an outreach centre in southern Tehran , teenagers are learning to be journalists, while upstairs their mothers are fine-tuning their sewing skills and rushing to fill an order for hospital uniforms. The brand-new centre in the working-class neighbourhood of Shahr-e Rey caters to hundreds of struggling families and Afghan refugees . It's a relatively new approach for Iran, where social welfare has often been left to informal groups based around the bazaar and mosque or fallen to large-scale government-controlled organisations. Today, privately-run charities are emerging, with managers, targets and buzzwords such as "empowerment" and "skills-training", and funded by wealthy business people who have made fortunes in booming industries such as private healthcare. This centre is run by the ILIA Foundation, created by social workers and members of the Nikan Hospital Group, who have partnered with UN refugee and health agencies to help around 1,000 fa...