Iranian Red Crescent Society

The Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS), officially the Red Crescent Society of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Persian: جمعیت هلال احمر جمهوری اسلامی ایران, romanized: Jamʿiyyat-e Helâl-e Ahmar-e Jomhuri-ye Eslâmi-ye Irân) is a non-governmental humanitarian organization in Iran. Founded as the Red Lion and Sun Society in 1922, it became affiliated with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in 1924 and changed its name and emblem in 1980, informing the international community of Hilal Ahmar adoption while assuming the right to adopt the former emblem in future.

Iranian Red Crescent Society
AbbreviationIRCS
Formation1922 (1922)
FounderAmir Amir-Aʿlam
Type
Legal statusLegislated by the Iranian Parliament on 28 April 1988
PurposeHumanitarian aid
HeadquartersBuilding of Peace, 136 Valiasr St., Tehran
Region served
Iran
Services
  • Relief operations
  • Search and rescue
  • Education
  • Research
Fields
  • Pharmaceutical industry
  • Textile manufacturing
  • Healthcare
Secretary General
Dr. Yaghob Soleymani
President
Pir-Hossein Kolivand
Budget (2016–17)
$231.36 million
Staff (2005)
7,000 paid employees
Volunteers (2017)
2,000,000
Websiteen.rcs.ir
Formerly called
Red Lion and Sun Society

The society is one of the world's largest national societies within IFRC and is noted for its special expertise in responding to earthquakes.

Since inception, the IRCS has participated in a variety of public activities. Its core activity is to perform relief and rescue operations to help victims and the injured in natural disasters and accidents. It also engages a in wide range of humanitarian services in health and rehabilitation, training and research. The society had a therapeutic approach and was regarded a major healthcare institution with thousands of hospital beds across the country until 1979, when all of its medical facilities were transferred to the Ministry of Health.

IRCS is an example of strong national societies that play an important role domestically and is held in high esteem by the Iranian general public.

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