Organized by the Iranian House of Cinema, a number of cineastes and actors gathered at the Azadi Cineplex on Friday to encourage their fans to support flood relief efforts.

Ali Nasiairna, Amin Tarokh, Amin Hayai, Habiab Rezai, Leila Hatami and Fatemeh Motamed-Arya were among the cineastes who met fans and collected relief donations.

Fans were able to donate their relief aid and receive a card bearing autographs of the participating cineastes and copies of their films in return.

Iran’s Red Crescent and Tehran Municipality had also collaborated in this program.

The items collected and the money raised will be donated to Iran’s Red Crescent, head of the board of the directors of the Iranian House of Cinema Homayun Asadian told the Persian service of MNA.

“People actively participated in the charity act and the Red Crescent has made great efforts in providing the region with humanitarian aid,” Asadian said.

“Since the flood is still threating several regions in the southern part of the country, we need to regain the trust of the people to collect their humanitarian aid,” he added.

“We are also planning to travel to the flood-stricken regions with a team of cineastes and distribute the collected aid under the supervision of the Red Crescent and the representatives of the Tehran Municipality,” he concluded.

In addition, Ali Sartippi, the producer of the film Rahman 1400 and Jamal Sadatian, the producer of 6.5 for One Meter agreed to donate their Friday box office receipts to the relief efforts.

Heavy rainfall beginning on March 19 has led to flooding in 28 out of 31 provinces affecting 42,269,129 inhabitants in 253 cities and causing widespread damage to municipal facilities, including health centers and hospitals.

Following devastating flood hitting Iranian provinces some 1,660,100 individuals are in need of health care services in areas where the floods have left 78 people dead and 1,137 injured. As many as 295,787 people have been displaced.

Source: Tehran Times