Iran Review

This year, an Iranian woman, Saideh Ghods founder of Mahak NGO in Iran, has made it to the Wall Street Journal's annual list of The 50 Women to Watch.

"When Saideh Ghods's two-year-old daughter was diagnosed with cancer nearly two decades ago, Ms. Ghods learned that some lower-income families in Iran, particularly those from remote provinces, were quietly letting their cancer-stricken children die.

They couldn't afford the cost of treatment or the expense of traveling to the children's hospitals in Tehran where treatment is available. In response, Ms. Ghods, 57, founded in 1991 a charity called Mahak to support the treatment of children with cancer. From the initial handful of volunteers the charity has grown into one of the largest nongovernmental organizations in Iran, helping some 12,000 Iranian children since its inception, as well as thousands of Iraqi and Afghan refugee children with cancer.

Now, Ms. Ghods aims to continue expanding her efforts with the help of funding from Iranian-Americans and others in the U.S., but first she must win permission from the U.S. Treasury for contributions to Mahak from donors in the U.S. Such contributions currently are blocked by U.S. sanctions against Iran."
Farnaz Fassihi, WSJ

About 18 years ago a proud Tehran mother faced the devastating news about her darling daughter's illness.  She swallowed her pain and, out of love, wanted to do something so that others would not find themselves alone when faced with such agony.  She talked to some wonderful good people around her as well as to her friends who all came to share her love and compassion for their fellow humans and together they formed Mahak.  Happily, years later, this mother's daughter recovered from cancer and is now studying for her degree at University of Berkeley in California.
Syma Sayyah, Payvand.com

Source: http://www.payvand.com/