United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

  The Iran National Rugby Team and the Coaches

Drug use often results in lassitude and derangement and so many may have the improper opinion that strength and coordination are still alien to people who once used to consume drugs, but have recovered now. The Congress 60 NGO has cherished the therapeutic effects of sports in the process of drug treatment and rehabilitation since many years and encourages its clients to do sports as a routine part of its recovery programmes. The Congress 60 NGO is one of the most prominent treatment NGOs founded in 1999 by Mr. Hossein Dejakam, himself a former drug user in Iran. Currently the Congress 60 NGO is running more than 40 centres and provides free-of-charge treatment services to more than 30,000 members consuming opium tincture  as an opioid substitution-detoxification treatment.

Congress 60 Rugby team along with a number of National Team players participated in the Asia Rugby Championship in Doha, Qatar during 16-19 April 2016.  The team had preparation camps for 20 days in Tehran hosted by Congress 60 during February and March 2016.

The Iranian National Team consisted of 26 players, 10 players from Congress 60 were prepared for this tournament. Participation of Congress 60 players in the national team is a proof of high level athletic preparedness.

The Asia Rugby Championship (ARC) is an annual rugby union competition held amongst national rugby sides within the Asia Rugby region. The national team had its first match with the host country, Qatar, a team consisting of many nationalities, on 16 April 2016. The Iranian National Team lost the game to Qatar in spite of their good performance.

 

Iran playing against Qatar

For their second match of the tournament, Iran competed against Lebanon on 19 April 2016 and despite the brave performance of the Iranian players, they lost the game. The highlight of this event was the presence of Mr. Mohammad Javad Asayesh Zarchi, the Iranian Ambassador in Doha.

Iran playing against Lebanon	The Iranian Ambassador encouraging the National  Team

The Congress 60 team participated in the Championship league with the motto "We either win or learn there's no failure" which was very appreciated by the Asian and Qataris sport authorities. The fact that Congress 60 players are part of the National team and have attended this tournament at continent level, paves the way for the world to believe in treatment of drug users.
UNODC has provided drug demand reduction training and capacity building support to Congress 60.