Above: An introduction to the work and history of the Iranian Association based in Hammersmith, west London
Below: A longer interview with Kaveh Kalantari, fundraising and development manager for the Iranian Association, Hammersmith.
Transcript 1
Kaveh Kalantari – Fundraising and Development Manager, Iranian Association
I have been working for the Association for over 20 years and managing and developing a diverse range of projects from education to advice, health and culture.
Nahid Soltanzadeh – Project Officer for Older People, Iranian Association
Most of the older people are quite isolated and they haven’t got any other activities. To make them more active and move a little bit makes a big difference.
Member of the Iranian Association
This [activity] is the best thing in the world, I think. Every week everyone is together and we eat and chat and I really enjoy it.
Nahid Soltanzadeh – Project Officer for Older People, Iranian Association
These sort of classes prevent people from developing mental health problems. Just having one session a week gives so much energy and positive feelings. They support each other and help solve each other’s problems at an early stage.
Kaveh Kalantari – Fundraising and Development Manager, Iranian Association
We have provided bursaries to help refugee professionals to re-qualify. And we have provide placements and work experience for people to learn about working in the UK.
Nasrin Rooghani – Clinical psychologist and Iranian Association volunteer
I think the main problem is that people come with a different culture and some refugees are uncertain about the future – whether they are going to be allowed to stay in this country. Plus, everyday life is stressful. Some of them have economic problems, too, Most of them were professional in Iran but here don’t know how to go about getting a job.
Kaveh Kalantari – Fundraising and Development Manager, Iranian Association
In more recent years people have been taking citizenship tests here in the UK and we are one of 64 test centres in this country. We are also a UK Online centre, providing online services to anyone in the local community who needs them.
Transcript 2
Kaveh Kalantari – Fundraising and Development Manager, Iranian Association
The Association was established about 27 years ago and became a registered charity in 1985. It started by offering advice on immigration and welfare to the clients as well as some cultural activities.Before we start a project we have to identify the need for that project. The Iranian Association deals with around 20,000 enquiries a year so we are in touch with many people. Around 5,000 people take citizenship tests here.
Initially most of our funding was from charitable trusts and we still get some of our funding from that source. But over the past decade we managed to access funding from the NHS, local government and also central government. For at least a decade we were supported well by the statutory bodies but at present that help has almost disappeared. I hope that in future there are new avenues by which we can secure resources. At the moment we rely on trust income and generating income.
We have always been generating income – for example by translation and interpreting. We also get money from the citizenship tests and offering courses.
A very large project which was funded by central government was Learn Direct – we were a Learn Direct centre for about 10 years. But unfortunately as the government started cutting funding we had to close our Learn Direct centre about 6 months ago.
The Iranian Association is accredited by Matrix, which is a quality mark for organisations offering advice on employment and education. We had an employment project supported by Single Regeneration funding, helping people understand about the labour market, getting ready for a job and applying for a job. And at the end of the course if they were successful they received a City & Guilds qualification. We also had funding from Europe to help unemployed people attend personal development courses.
The campaign for Pallingswick House (the organisation’s shared premises, which was offered as the site for a new school by the council) was run by all of us. We are working together and sharing resources. The Iranian Association has been at Pallingswick House for 23 years and thousands of clients have visited us here and the organisations here have brought hundreds of thousands of pounds in funding to this borough. So it is a great loss [losing the building] and I don’t know how it can be replaced.
