World Social Work Day 2018

World Social Work Day is parallel with 25 Isfand in Persian calendar, only one week before Norooz, Persian New Year celebration.

Iran Association of Social Workers (IASW) has held three independent ceremonies and contributed in some others for the World Day of Social Work Day. IASW also printed Translated Posters and sent it to almost all social organizations throughout the country.

IASW has designed and developed Social Health Medal and awarded it to three distinguished persons. Based on a relative consensus the medal recipients were of the most active and most influential persons in their areas of expertise and their work helped improving social health throughout the society. They were related to social work and all of them were academically well-known as well.

The medal has been developed in order to draw attentions to social health dimensions and highlight social prevention, social responsibility, social integration.

Several people were proposed and finally, IASW board of directors agreed on “Dr. Seyed Ahmad Hosseini Hajibakandeh”, “Dr Mohammad kamali”, and “Dr. Habib Aghabakhshi”.

1. Hosseini is a social worker who has been teaching social work for about 50 years. He also has done a lot of social community work in different part of Iran. Almost all social workers as well as many social policy makers know him for marvelous activities he did in some of great earthquakes events during 1960_s to 1980_s.
2. Mohammad Kamali is now a member of science committee of the Iran University of Medical Sciences. Almost all agreed that he is the most influential person in the field of rehabilitation. He succeeded to develop community based rehabilitation when he worked as rehabilitation deputy of the State Welfare Organization. Many of current and former high rank managers and scholars as well as people with disability attended on his commemoration ceremony.
3. Habib Aghabakhshi is known for his great nation-wide community based plans in social prevention especially in the field of disability and drug abuse. Dr Aghabakhshi is a professor of social work in Islamic Azad University. He is a pioneer practitioner who has developed the idea of social prevention in Iran during 1970_s and 80_s and his valuable book on addiction and family pathology is very popular.

IASW also unveiled commemorative stamps for the three persons mentioned above, in the presence of the representative of National Post Company, by which the name of social work and social health will be present for many years.

In line with IASW some social organizations such as Ministery of Health and Medical Education, and also Iran Red Crescent Society’s Volunteer Organization held celebrations on World Social Work Day in which IASW has contributed.