Nader Nofar Memoirs of Schools Contributions to the Fronts

Faezeh Sasanikhah
Translated by: Zahra Hosseinian

2020-12-22

We thought that we should approach the issue more prudently, when it got serious to contribute to the front. We consulted with Mr. Ahmadipour and Mr. Khojasteh and a few other friends and focused on two points; first, aids should not be scattered and the other is that aids should be commensurate with the real needs of the combatants. The second point was very important. If we were to send, for example, food to the front, we should consider what season we are in and what kind of nutrition is appropriate for those days. These discussions took place in late autumn and near winter. We were supposed to prepare rose petals jam for the breakfast of fighters. This kind of jam was suitable for breakfast in the cold weather. We informed the students about our decision for cooking jam for the fronts. We asked them to bring sugar and dried petal rose if they had. The next day, students came to school with bags of sugar. They had also brought dried petal rose, but they were not enough. Therefore, from a shop at the Shahid Beheshti intersection, we bought some dried petal rose with the money that students had collected as contribution to the fronts. Because we did not have cooking utensils at school, Mr. Khojasteh announced that he prepare and cook it with the help of his family and bring it to school. In two large pots, the rose petals jam was carried to the school. Now it was time to pack them. The students went looking for jars and boxes. Many jars were collected from people’s houses. One afternoon, students gathered in the school to pack the jam. Tasks were divided among them. Some cleaned the jars, others filled them with spoon, and another group put the lids and cleaned the jars again. We also prepared pieces of paper which were supposed to be stuck on the jars. On one part of these papers the logo of the school was stamped and on the rest, the students wrote something for combatants. A student named Sotoudeh stuck the papers on the jars. At the end, students arranged the jars in the shape of IRI logo, gathered next to it and took some photos. It was more than six hundred jars which were packed in boxes and were prepared to be sent to the zones. It lasted for half a day, and during these hours, while working, the students prayed, joked, listened to memories, etc.[1]

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It was 1986. I worked at Amirkhizi High School. Many school contributions were sent to the fronts, such as food, clothing, and so on. Once it was suggested by the Education War Support Staff that you try to provide a vehicle (a van or an ambulance) upon students’ contribution. It was an interesting suggestion. We thought about to see if it was impossible and can be done. We concentrated the school’s contributions on the cash. Of course, we did not prevent non-cash contributions, but raised the issue of buying an ambulance for the front at the school and asked everyone to contribute in cash as much as possible. Under those economic conditions, we knew that buying an ambulance was difficult for our school. So, we talked to the representative of the Nissan factory to calculate only the cost price for us and not to make a profit on selling an ambulance. They agreed. This time we collected the contributions, classroom by classroom. We thought this would create a competition between classes. Most of the time, I myself went from classroom to classroom. Furthermore, the popular and influential teachers of high school were asked to go to classes and talk to the students. Finally, the cash contributions were collected, a list was prepared, and the final minutes were presented to each class. We summed all the collected money, but it was not enough for buying an ambulance. Fairly enough, our high school students contributed generously. Each of them paid around 20 to 50 Tomans. I even remember that Shahid Rahnamoud, who apparently couldn’t afford to contribute, donated one hundred Tomans. We informed other friends. Eventually, the students of Valfajr High School on Sheshgalan Street, whose educational teacher was Mr. Khadem Hosseini, made an effort and the rest of the money was collected.

I remember that Mr. Parsian, our support officer, was in charge of transporting the ambulance to the front. We drove the ambulance to the western front and handed it over to the war headquarters.[2]