TEHRAN – Two pilot programs for young boys and girls’ wellbeing and empowerment have been launched in four provinces of the country.

The Ministry of Sports and Youth and the Drug Control Headquarters in cooperation with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) are implementing these programs in Kermanshah, Alborz, Isfahan, and Khorasan Razavi provinces.

One program is for empowering adolescents and young boys and the other program is for girls' psycho-social health and their empowerment.

Soft and technical skills are taught to boys aged 15 to 24 in three UNICEF-supported centers located in Kermanshah, Alborz, and Isfahan provinces.

The centers provide different services including on-the-job training, internships, mentoring, psycho-social support, counseling, and social entrepreneurship programs.

The focus of this program is to facilitate a smooth transition from learning to earning, empowering 1,618 adolescents and youth in these provinces, the UNICEF website announced in a press release on November 13.

In the next step, with the expansion of this program, it will encompass the following provinces: Sistan-Baluchestan, South Khorasan, Khorasan Razavi, Kerman, and Hormozgan.

Some of these provinces have a significant number of Afghan refugee children and adolescents.

Simultaneously, the psycho-social wellbeing and empowerment centers for girls in the cities of Mashhad and Kermanshah have played an important role in addressing the psycho-social challenges of vulnerable adolescent girls in these provinces.

These centers are dedicated to preventing substance use and mitigating social harm among young girls, the report added.

A total of 2,023 adolescent girls and their families, 1,720 girls and 303 parents, have received support through a holistic approach which includes face-to-face meetings, online outreach, and referral services.

After evaluating the results of these programs and enhancing the capacity of non-governmental organizations, these programs will be implemented in other provinces that face the challenge of illegal drug use.

Anti-narcotics headquarters, UNICEF co-op

The Iranian anti-narcotics headquarters and UNICEF office in Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding to launch a joint plan of action for the prevention and treatment of drug abuse among teenagers.

The joint plan of action is to be implemented over 2023-2024. It will be the main base of cooperation with UNICEF in combating narcotics.

The joint activities will be defined and carried out in cooperation with relevant national institutions, Fars reported.

Also, in the past four years through implementing two joint plans of action, some activities have been carried out for the prevention and treatment of drug abuse among adolescents.

Setting up two health and rehabilitation centers for at-risk adolescents in two provinces of the country, which are known as exemplary centers providing services to the target community, was one of the measures taken in this regard.

On October 15, UNICEF and the Iranian anti-narcotics headquarters cooperated to develop an emergency protocol for staff working with at-risk adolescents to enhance their capacity for addressing youth needs during emergencies. They also held two workshops in August and September, the UNICEF website reported.

Thanks to these programs, social workers, experts, counselors, volunteers, and peers will be able to provide much more effective services in case of any emergencies to vulnerable youth, adolescents, and their families.

The aim of these workshops was to expand the technical needs of those working with vulnerable and at-risk girls to provide more efficient services to them in case of emergencies.

During the workshops, in addition to capacity building on crisis management and specialized interventions, a protocol for UNICEF-supported Adolescent Wellbeing Centers in Mashhad and Kermanshah was developed to strengthen their emergency response capacity.

MT/MG