Iranian Couple Using Instagram to Help Needy Children

Saeedeh Delmoradi, a young teacher who teaches at a school for exceptional children, and her husband Mohammad Mousavian, have managed to build a new life for needy children using their Instagram account.

Among thousands of right and wrong guys on Instagram, Saeedeh and Mohammad’s page has turned into a link to give people information about deprived and destitute children and their families.

This couple shared only part of the deprivation and needs of the children and their families, and, accordingly, was able to help many of them. Saeedeh and Mohammad long to be able to take care of all the children whose families cannot afford to look after them.

What follows are highlights of the Shahrvand daily newspaper’s Farsi report and interview with them:

Saeedeh Delmoradi, born in September 1980, holds a BA in Cultural Affairs and is currently teaching at a school for intellectually underdeveloped children in the city of Sarakhs.

Her husband is the director of a centre handling learning disorders and holds a BA in Psychology of Exceptional Children. They were colleagues and were into music.

Saeedeh had been mostly teaching in deprived areas before she opened her Instagram page.

Let’s talk about what you guys do in Instagram.

By sharing the photos depicting aid being delivered to the needy, I wanted to give people information about them in the first place, and secondly, I intended to collect aid for them, but I really wouldn’t have thought that I would be able to take such a great step towards helping the students in the village and their families.

We are involved in a whole range of activities, including the construction of bathrooms and toilets for houses, repairing dilapidated houses, attending to the healthcare needs of children who cannot afford it, implementing plans to create jobs for families in the village, offering assistance for pupils and university students’ education, and providing needy families with food packages.

So far, we have been able to save two people on death row, and we are dealing with the third one now. But one of the reports which went viral on social media was one related to holding birthday parties for children in deprived regions.

 

How do you hold these birthday parties?

People donate the cost of their birthday parties by buying gifts, and we give those gifts to children who do not know what a birthday party and birthday cake is, and we hold birthday parties for them. Since many of the children live in deprivation, they do not even know what a birthday party and birthday cake is, and that’s how we make them happy.

How could you win people’s trust?

I really don’t know what happened that people could believe the shared photos. Each picture that we posted on our Instagram page was not only a photo. Many people sobbed by seeing them, and contacted us, and some of them went to visit the families in person.

How do you get to know these deprived regions?

Getting to know deprived regions and needy families is sometimes accidental. We may identify some of these places when we are away on vacation. We have some liaisons in cities, especially in deprived regions, and it is mostly these liaisons that introduce deprived families and deprived regions to us. Another point is that when we go on trips, we share the routes of our trips on our Instagram page and people follow us. Sometimes they introduce to us the regions and families that they have identified themselves, and we will help them if we can confirm that the really need help.

How about Matin, Homayoon and Atefeh? These are the children who are always present in your pictures and have accompanied you. What’s their story?

We don’t have children ourselves. We adopted Homayoon almost a year ago. As for Matin and Atefeh, because their parents cannot afford to look after them, we are currently taking care of them until their parents become capable of caring for them. Then we will hand over the children to them. Matin and Atefeh are with us temporarily and we have a duty to provide all welfare facilities for them, so that they will be reunited with their families in good condition.

How could you win the trust of the family of Matin and Atefeh to leave their children in your care?

It was very difficult, especially regarding Matin as it took almost a month. After we went to their home a few times, they came to our neighbourhood to find out about us, and finally they agreed. At the moment, we are in contact with the family of Matin and Atefeh, and the kids visit their parents every now and then. Of course, Matin and Atefeh have other sponsors, too. They are not only my and Mohammad’s children; they are the children of all those who support them.

And the last word …

First, I’d like to thank my husband. If it weren’t for his help, none of those things could have been done. Then I’d like to thank our families and all the people who helped these families develop a good feeling. I hope this trend will always continue.