Maragheh Healthy City program was evaluated on June 15 and 16. In the last days of spring, Maragheh hosted three evaluators from the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office of the World Health Organization. Dr. Maha Al-Adavi, Dr. Samer El-Feki and Dr. Mohsen Kanaan visited different interventions of Maragheh's Healthy City Program during two days. It should be noted that respected officials from the World Health Organization office in Iran, as well as the officials of the Health Education and Promotion Office of the Ministry of Health and the consultant of the World Health Organization in the Healthy City program also had a valuable presence in Maragheh in this two-day evaluation.

The evaluation program started with the opening ceremony in the morning of June 26. Then the evaluation started from different places and finally, in the evening of June 16, the closing ceremony was held with the enthusiastic presence of a number of government departments and partners of Maragheh Healthy City Program. In this ceremony, the evaluators expressed their full satisfaction with the Maragheh Healthy City Program and the performance of the Maragheh Healthy and Safe City Program Secretariat.

Dr. Maha Al-Adavi called the evidence-based planning and bottom-up policy-making in Maragheh unique and the excellent performance of the Maragheh Healthy City Program team as a source of pride, while appreciating the valuable efforts of the Maragheh Healthy City Program team.

Dr. Samr Elfeki said that receiving the international certificate of Healthy City is the beginning of the road for Maragheh, and Maragheh should be a model for other cities in implementing the Healthy City Program. Also, she considered the durability and stability of the Healthy City program in Maragheh admirable and appreciated the governor's commitment to the implementation of the program.

The closing ceremony ended with appreciation of some of the team members of Maragheh Healthy City Program. The secretariat of Maragheh Healthy and Safe City Program is located in the  ​​Maragheh University of Medical Sciences and operates under the supervision of the governor of Maragheh. There are 7 specialized committees focusing on the municipality, Maragheh University of medical science , welfare, police force command, education and training and Red Crescent population under the secretariat.

The civil society and the members of the People's Participation House in Health are the effective arms of the secretariat, and the Maragheh Healthy and Safe City Program think tank with the membership of the presidents of the universities and higher educational centers of the city operates under the secretariat and plays an effective role in advancing the goals of the Maragheh Healthy and Safe City Program.

Click here to see the video of the opening ceremony.