Founded in 2009 with the collaboration of the Health Office of the Tehran Municipality, Faramuz Center (i.e. ‘Clean Breath’) aims at the enhancement of children’s knowledge and understanding on tobacco harms and educating them in this regard. At the interactive and joyful space of this Center, children’s behavioral skills against tobacco use are fortified. Thus, they can participate in activities such as teaching anti-tobacco skills to their peers.
The Center’s programs include direct and indirect activities that are held for free in a happy atmosphere for children aged 5 to 12, with the goal of educating and promoting the culture of counseling and awareness-raising for this group of children, and the promotion of interactions between families aimed at the preparation of children for healthy life in the future.
Other essential targets of Faramuz Center in relation to children and adolescents are as follows:
• Increasing children’s awareness about tobacco harms (harm to physical and mental health, disruption of social relationships, the economic burden to the individual and society, environmental damage, etc.);
• Increasing children’s awareness about irrational reasons for tobacco use and the difficulty of smoking cessation;
• Promotion of the self-knowledge and application of appropriate behavioral skills against compliments of cigarettes by others and the temptation of tobacco use;
• Encouraging the children to transfer their own teachings to the family and becoming a small promoter for tobacco abstinence in the family and society.
The activities of this center are at two levels:
1. Programs inside the Center: The interiors of Faramuz include the entrance, the showroom, the secret room, the knowledge room, the drawing room, and the exercise room, and at the end, a special card, named ‘Hamyar-e-Salamat’ (i.e. ‘Health Helper’), is given to the children.
2. Programs outside the Center: These activities include programs carried out at schools and kindergartens, parks, cultural centers, health centers, neighborhood centers, and in different cities and villages, as well as participation in administration of public health pavilions, holding student and Hamyaran-e-Salamat (i.e. health assistants) conferences, holding painting and storytelling contests, and participation in scientific congresses.
These programs include performance, puppet show, drawing competition, live music performance, establishing information booth, and the provision of books about tobacco prevention for children and adolescents.
This Center, with the assistance of experienced instructors and experts, move this great mission forward.
