TEHRAN – The Basij, affiliated with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, has inaugurated 2,550 development projects in deprived regions nationwide.

The projects were in the areas of housing, water supply, agriculture, electricity, employment, infrastructure, roads, health, and sports.

Moreover, construction of 40,000 houses for the underprivileged families began, IRNA reported on Sunday.

About a year after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, on November 26, 1979, Imam Khomeini called for the formation of the Basij force with the aim of preparing the military and defense against threats of enemies.

Basij is tasked with preventing and countering any foreign military aggression, political, economic, and cultural threats, as well as natural disasters.

The establishment of Basij resulted in increasing labor productivity, training a skilled workforce, creating and strengthening job opportunities and supporting businesses, enhancing vocational training, developing the agricultural sector, improving the country's executive and administrative system, increasing construction activities, sustainable agricultural development, and protection of renewable natural resources, and saving on administrative costs.

Small groups of volunteers, mainly students called Basijis, spontaneously enter the field of construction and poverty eradication or in case of emergencies.

With the formation of Basij, the field of work becomes wider, so that at the beginning, only about 100 teams were operating in the country, while it has now reached more than 12,000 groups, which is still expanding.

FB/MG