Real lives

A young girl rediscovers her childhood

Farzaneh makes new friends at the Neshat Centre in Baravat.

Farzaneh lunges across the table to reach the ball. She misses but she doesn’t care. It’s just a game of table tennis and she hasn’t been playing long. She laughs and jokes with her friend as she picks up the ball from the dusty ground.

Farzaneh’s not even 15 years old but she’s already had a failed marriage, and is now struggling to get a divorce.

“I was so depressed after being forced into a marriage with a 26-year-old drug addict that I tried to commit suicide a couple of times,” she said, as she sat in one of the rooms at the centre. "Now, at Neshat, with all my friends around me, I have learnt how to be a child again."

"Now, at Neshat, with all my friends around me, I have learnt how to be a child again."
The Neshat community counselling and recreational centres in Bam and Baravat are the outcome of a joint collaboration between Iran’s State Welfare Organization and UNICEF. Their aim is to provide psychosocial support for the people of Bam and the surrounding villages after an earthquake wreaked havoc on the region in December 2003.

Both centres are places for adults and children to get away from the depression and isolation of losing their relatives and friends during the earthquake. It gives them a chance to meet up and share the pain, and know that they were not alone when the tragedy struck. And while the children play with new friends, adults can learn new skills, such as basket weaving, or attend group counselling sessions.

“Play and recreation is the language of children and that’s how they relate to each other,” said Maziar Taleshi, UNICEF’s assistant project officer in Child Protection in Bam. “Neshat provides recreation and play and counseling in the same physical space and with the same objective for both adults and children.”

Neshat provides a range of activities for boys and girls.

A few metres from one of the centres, a group of teenagers are playing football on a makeshift pitch. The ground is hard and uneven but the boys don’t seem to care. They shout and jostle and race around the pitch, the dust gathering in clouds around their feet. Standing in one corner with a stick under his arm, a dark-skinned boy, whose unbuttoned shirt reveals a thick gold chain dangling on his chest, watches the game.

“His name is Hamid,” said Tayebeh Dehbashi, supervisor of the centres, as she pointed him out. “He used to be a heroin addict, but since taking part in our counselling sessions in Baravat, he has become actively involved in leadership activities, and now heads the local football team.”

Both centres, which have been open for two-and-a-half months, employ four local social workers who have received training in individual and group counselling methods. Leaflets, brochures, books and videos are available for parents, children and teenagers. Classes where women can learn how to make handicrafts out of palm tree leaves are also on offer.

“When I was at home, I used to spend my time thinking about those I have lost,” said Sakineh Masoudi, who lost her three children in the disaster. “Here in Neshat, I share my experience and pain with others and that’s a relief for me. It’s also a place where I can learn new skills.”

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