The Second Online Course on Training Specialized Cadres for Primary Prevention of Addiction in ECO Member Countries held at UT

This event was held on 26 May, 2021 at University of Tehran. The program started with remarks by Dr. Amirabbas Lotfi Sarabi, Director General for International Relations Office, at Iran's Drug Control Headquarters. Then Prof. Saeed Habiba, Vice President for Students' Affairs at UT presented his remarks and finally the representative of ECO Secretariat presented a short speech. 

The instructor of the course was Dr. Hooman Narenjiha , physician and researcher in the field of Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment who presented three speeches on : Principles of addiction prevention in the workplace, in universities , in schools and the media. The participants from ECO member countries took part in the online course and were awarded certificate of attendance.   

The text of welcom remarks and speech by Prof. Habiba , Vice President for Students' Affairs reads as follows:

In the Name of God

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Distinguished Participants

It is a pleasure for us to hold The Second Online Workshop on Prevention from Addiction for the experts of ECO member countries.  First of all, we would like to welcome the respectable participants who have got together here for the exchange of experience and knowledge. Then, we would like to welcome ECO , Iran's Drug Control Headquarters and our colleagues at University of Tehran who are the organizers of this meeting.

We, in the University of Tehran believe that Prevention Approach is one of the most dominant approaches on facing with the social issue of addiction.  Such an approach needs to be used by the planners and policy makers in each country.

On the other hand, the educated experts in the domain of prevention are the executive hearts of such an approach. Therefore, University of Tehran welcomed such an event, since making efforts in the area of promotion of health for the all walks of life in the society is among the social responsibilities of University of Tehran .

For this reason, during the past years, in addition to its inherent duty on higher education, this university as one of the greatest institutions of higher education in the Islamic Republic of Iran has tried to be reliance point besides responsible institutions such as Iran's Drug Control Headquarters and to deal with developing and performing its educational programs in the area of prevention from addiction.  It has been such that during this period, using different methods such as production and publication of books, holding educational workshops , participation in the process of planning and policymaking and other methods play a role at center of different targets including schools, universities , families and working environments.

Holding the First Educational Workshop on Prevention from Addiction on 11 November, 2020 with the participation of 8 ECO member countries provided an opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience at international level and having shared the knowledge, experience, preoccupations and special needs, the participants paved the ground for a sympathetic association to have a careful confrontation with the issue of addiction.

This very rich experience made us to welcome holding The Second Educational Workshop too, since our main belief is that education and partnership are constant issues , in particular with regard to the fact that addiction is multilateral , complex and vivid issue which could find a new shape under the influence of economic, social, and cultural changes, so that it is necessary that our responses to be proportional with these changes.

Therefore , the international initiative and joint collaboration among ECO , Iran’s Drug Control Headquarters and University of Tehran is an opportunity for knowledge promotion , reinforcement of social responsibility and partnership to deal with the social phenomenon of addiction.

We hope that this educational workshop could bring about an opportunity for knowledge acquisition and promotion and valuable achievements to the participants.  Moreover, we hope it could pave the ground for further partnership among the ECO member countries.  Lastly, it is hoped that with the end of conditions resulting from Corona crises, an opportunity to be created for physical meetings and deepening the process of social participation.