Dr Ahmad Ali Noorbala is President of the National Red Crescent Society of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Professor of Psychiatry at the Medical Faculty of Tehran University. The Iranian Red Crescent was established in 1922 and changed its former name, the Persian Red Lion and Sun Society, to the present one in 1980. It has 30 governorate headquarters, and 330 branches throughout the country. With about 7,000 paid staff members and more than two million volunteers, as well as the mainly high school and university student members of its youth organization, it is one of the worlds largest National Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies. Beside its core activity of relief and disaster preparedness, the Iranian Red Crescent engages in wide-ranging humanitarian services in health and rehabilitation, training and research. The Society is held in high esteem by the Iranian general public.
* The interview was conducted on 26 April 2005 in Geneva by Toni Pfanner, Editor-in-Chief of the International Review of the Red Cross, Andreas Wigger, ICRC Deputy Director of Operations, and Mostafa Mohaghegh, Operations Coordinator, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.