Projects
Thanks to the donors, we were able to raise EUR 9.000 for the project (see exact breakdown below) and were able to build homes for ten families. As always, we prioritised in our choice: single mothers, sick or handicapped persons, elderly and children.
Please see the list of the families we built homes for below.
- Two single sisters who live together, one of them has a (neural) handicapped child.
- A single mother with three children aged 14, 16 and 18.
- One mother with two drug addicted sons and three divorced daughters, with the daughters’ six children.
- Two brothers aged above 70 without work/safe income.
- A couple and a child – the wife had a stroke and cannot move her body. They have been living in a container.
- 12 family members who have lived together in a space of approx. 70 sqm.
- A single mother with two children.
- A family with three handicapped children.
- A man who became handicapped due to an accident and lost his job. He ended up living in a container.
- A seasonal worker, his wife and their newborn child who had been living in a tent.
Gallery on the process
Note: We noticed during site visits that the families were shy or ashamed of being in photos and showing they were recipients of aid. We have therefore only included pictures of a few of the family members from afar rather than up close.
Fundraiser and payments
Through our annual Norouz campaign #30by13, we fundraised a total of EUR 8,855.65 by May 2023 and rounded this up with our organisation funds – thanks to our annual donors – to EUR 9,000 (to be precise, EUR 8,999.36 for exchange rate reasons). As the Iranian Rial is continuously losing value, we deposited the money until payment time for the construction works in our German account and only converted the money when payment in Rial was needed. As a result the conversion took place in four tranches to secure the best possible exchange rate – totalling Rials 4,891,050,000.
Background
In the earthquake of Khoy, the city was hit as well as approximately 70 neighbouring villages. Thousands of homes were destroyed, impacting households which were already struggling before the earthquake due to the collapse of the economy in the recent years and rise of poverty. The inhabitants of Khoy are primarly of the Iranian ethnic groups Iranian-Azeris and Iranian-Kurds.
Within a week of the devastating earthquake in Khoy, the severe earthquake of Turkey and Syria struck that region and rightfully received the world’s attention, which we hope has resulted in immense support. Khoy was hardly shared in the world media and barely received aid. Given the sanctions restrictions that have been affecting humanitarian aid projects for Iran, international organisations did not place a focus on Khoy.
Our funds were used for long term aid relief. We focused on rebuilding homes and providing urgently needed goods such as heaters, rather than short term supplies. As usual, we did not have any administrative costs and every cent of the donations was sent to Iran. For the frequently asked questioned you can see here as always.
We are very grateful to all donors who made this relief project possible. Every one of these families which now has a roof above their head will not forget what our donors did.
With gratitude,
EUIRANC Board of Directors
euiranc.org 