TEHRAN – ‘Feast of charity’, an annual campaign aiming to provide underprivileged families with money and essential commodities for the coming Iranian New Year, starting on March 21, began on Wednesday nationwide.

Every year benefactors take part in a charity campaign prior to Noruz, the new year holidays, to give a hand to those families who have hard time addressing their essential needs.

Feast of charity is organized by Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation and is a 3-day event.

The first day of the campaign was held on Wednesday in schools all over the country, ISNA reported.

Last year, some 230 billion rials ($5 million) was collected from schools, Fars quoted Mohammad Aligu, deputy director of Iran’s student organization as saying on Wednesday.

The second day of the event is planned to be held today in main squares of the cities nationwide. And finally, the campaign will end on Friday.

Some 70,000 centers have been established nationwide for this purpose. In addition, benefactors can also donate electronically, via ATMs, special mobile applications, websites and etc.

Totally, some 1.25 trillion rials (nearly $27 million) was collected last year through the feast of charity campaign and was distributed among poor families nationwide, the official website of Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation reported.

MAH/MQ/MG