World Refugee Day

Over 3300 medical services to refugee children by Zanjireh Omid Int. Charity Institute

As mentioned earlier, Zanjireh Omid has been providing top medical services in accordance with global standards at minimum cost for underprivileged children under 18 regardless of their race, religion or nationality since its foundation. There is a large number of refugees residing in Iran and the cost of their treatment, particularly subspecialized treatment, is several times as high as that of local patients. Following their admission at the institute, the underprivileged children suffering from cardiac (cardiology and cardiac surgery), orthopedic (spine, hand, lower limb) and reconstructive (burns, cleft lip/palate and congenital malformations) conditions begin receiving medical services including preliminary diagnostic examinations, full treatment procedures, surgical operations and post-op care services, and eventually gain complete recovery and become useful members of their community. The project's target group includes children under 18 whom they have no role in their fate determination. As per the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, Zanjireh Omid Institute attempts to remove the discrimination these children face due to their national origin.

Low quality care and delayed medical treatments, in addition to physical problems could cause lifetime disability. This could have an adverse effect on child's educational progress and consequently bring about financial burdens on societies and families. According to the Article 5 of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, societies should attempt to remove this disability by providing proper conditions for such cases. Having this mind, it is necessary to find a solution for this challenge under the support of donors and Zanjireh Omid's subspecialty medical team and hopefully bring these children back to life. Since the treatment of children supported by Zanjireh Omid is considered a high priority, the legal, illegal and stateless refugee children can benefit from therapeutic services offered in the above-mentioned fields at the institute irrespective of domestic laws of the country.

Challenges

Absent of proper healthcare services and health insurance are ones of major obstacles faced by refugees living in Iran.; moreover, the unfavorable public opinion toward refugees has made finding proper financial resources a serious challenge since most Iranian prefer to contribute only to local charity programs. On the other land, limited funds allocated by International organizations including annual financial contributions made by UNHCR cover a small part of staggering medical costs of refugees.