On December 15, 2017, Taleqani Park hosted some special guests from Federation of Social Workers. Approaching the time of the 60th anniversary of International Congress of Social Work, Dr. Ruri Trowel, the Secretary-General of the Federation Social Work, and Dr. Edward Crook, the professor of social work in British Colombia University of Canada, accompanied by Dr. Mousavi Chalak, the director of Iran Association of Social Workers, attended Taleqani Park in order to observe the sports activities of Congress60’s members.
What follows is the full report of the event.
We are so glad to meet you. I want to introduce our friends, Dr. Edward Crook and Dr. Trowel. They are going to stay in Iran for one month and we are proud of using their experience and knowledge. Actually 34 other guests will attend later.
Dr. Aqabakhshi has previously introduced Congress60 to Dr. Crooke and we pointed out some parts of your activities. I ask you to permit Mr. Olamaei, the director of our international affairs to prepare a report of your activities for the guests. Dr. Crook promised to introduce the report as a pattern to at least 154 members of the Federation. Dr. Crooke is a unique person in the realm of family. He is happy to see the presence of families (companions) beside the sick (travelers). Both Dr. Crook and Dr. Trowel confessed that Congress60’s key of success is hidden in the presence of the families.
I highly respect Mr. Dezhakam and his colleagues. Their NGO is a successful one and those who deny it have unfair judgment. I occasionally go to Mr. Dezhakam and keep his teachings in my cellphone and transfer them to others.
The last time I went to him, I learned 3 key point, including not doing political activities, being independent, and being both serious and kind which is so difficult for us while it is common in Congress60.
It was the 20th anniversary of the Base of Congress60 last week. I congratulate all members. We saw that sports activities which have been replaced with addiction are effective for treatment. We are glad to be here and we are glad that Iran Association of Social Workers has been a bridge for what you do. I ask my friends to talk about their interpretation of what they have seen today.
Dr. Edward Crook:
First of all I thank you all for the opportunity given to me to come here. I previously knew nothing about Congress60. I am working on a film about social work with family and children, and another film about social work and addiction. We live in Vancouver, Canada, where we have a crisis with a drug called phanthenol, 100 times stronger that heroine. Only in Vancouver, over 5000 people have overdosed. The number of its victims is more in Canada and the North America. Two million people are now suffering from its addiction in Vancouver.
I always tell my students in university that the opposite point of addiction is good and health relationships. Unfortunately, most of addiction treatment models in North America isolate addicts from his family. My recent experience and knowledge tells me that it is a wrong approach and we should enhance these relations as far as we can.
In my opinion, we need to know more about this method (DST Method). There is no information about it in our country. I am so proud to be here and learned about the method which I can transfer to my country. Today, I have learned a lot and I thank you for the opportunity you gave to us.
Dr. Ruri Throwel:
I want to stand and speak because my mother always told me, “When you want to speak, stand up and speak firmly.” And we know that we should obey our mothers in any cultures.
I am the representative of three million social workers of the International Federation of Social Workers all over the world. I would like to send my greetings to all of you. I am so happy to be here and I appreciate the idea of sharing our experiences together. When talking to Mr. Chalak during the first hour after coming to Iran, I found out the level of Iranian social workers is the same as the world level.
Today I found that you make the addicts take responsibilities and help him to enhance it. Another good point is that you don’t isolate the addict from others, but you make them a member of society to play roles in groups. These are the primary principles of social work. I leave here as my heart is full of the love you donate to people. I want to take what I saw here so as to share with the countries which are members of our federation.
Translated by: Marjan
