TEHRAN – Barekat Charity Foundation, affiliated with the Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam, inaugurated 150 schools across the country on Tuesday, IRIB reported.

“We have so far built 1,800 schools for the deprived, and some 150 with 665 classrooms began operation today,” Mohammad Torkamaneh, the CEO of Barekat Foundation said.

The foundation is committed to building 2,700 schools with 14,000 classrooms.

School building benefactors allotted 34 trillion rials (nearly $130 million) to construct educational spaces across the country over the past [Iranian calendar] year ended in March. Some 3,750 villages across the country are covered by the Barekat Foundation's school-building activities, he added.

According to Torkamaneh, there are currently 250,000 students in Barekat schools.

The actions of the executive staff of the Foundation in the field of economy and employment have led to 200,000 economic projects and 600,000 job opportunities, and deprived areas have grown.

Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam was founded in 1989. In the Iranian calendar year, 1386 (March 2017-March 2018) Barekat Charity Foundation- the social arm of the organization- with the aim of promoting social justice was established.

Socio-economic empowerment of communities by encouraging entrepreneurship prioritizing breadwinner women, developing infrastructures such as water supply and power grids, building roads, constructing schools and increasing educational spaces, promoting health for all, and granting non-repayable loans and insurance, especially in less developed areas and regions most affected by 1980s war and natural disasters are of the priorities of the charity foundation.

School building benefactors have allotted a total of 34 trillion rials (nearly $130 million) to construct educational spaces across the country over the past [Iranian calendar] year (March 2021-March 2022), ISNA reported.

Due to the promotion of the culture of participation in school construction, school-building donors allotted trillion rials (nearly $130 million) last year, which was 170 billion rials (around $650) in 1998 when the Association of School-Building Donors was established, Education Minister Yousef Nouri said on Sunday.

According to Nasser Ghofli, the director of the Association, 400 school-building charities have been registered in the country so far.

Iran has many school-building benefactors amounting to 650,000 people inside and 1,000 people outside the country.

FB/MG