PERSEPOLIS

(Society for Harm-Reduction)

Tehran, Iran

Persepolis NGO was established in 1999 in the south of Iran's Fars province to provide low threshold services, which included Needle Exchange and Substitution Treatment, for drug users in the region. In 2003 Persepolis moved to Tehran and opened a centre providing user-friendly and low threshold services to street-drug users.

Persepolis was established under the directorship of Dr. Bijan Nassirimanesh, a prominent advocate for harm reduction services at the time in Iran. The first centre opened its doors in September 2003, using a container as a drop-in facility initially and then opening a proper Drop-in Centre, which is still operational today in the south of the city.

Persepolis was the first Iranian NGO to introduce Outreach Services in Tehran and has since trained other NGOs to do the same. During outreach, first aid is administered to homeless drug users on the streets for infections coming from injecting local drugs and referrals are made to clinics for people in need.

The location of Persepolis Drop-in Centre is in the middle of an area in Tehran that houses many injecting drug users and is easily accessible for its clientele. The Iranian Government has in 2009 introduced restrictions on how many Drug Users can be serviced by one NGO and the present limit is 200 individuals.

DO-International has supported the NGO operations and the purchase of a mobile unit for outreach services.
Persepolis has been a for-runner of the harm reduction approach now widely adopted in Iran by both Government and Non-Government institutions and was the first NGO that implemented programmes that could actively assist people using drugs in their struggle to stay alive. It is because of this that Persepolis gained the acceptance and the needed assistance of the Iranian Drug Control Office to be allowed to carry out their activities. Persepolis works closely with the University and often has volunteer students assisting in the activities, thereby becoming an important learning environment for the University.