In the years immediately following World War II, Mohamed Nemazee traveled to his ancestral homeland of Shiraz, Iran, where his father had built a health-care clinic designed to provide care for the local community. Upon arriving, Nemazee realized the existing facilities required a complete overhaul, and he began making plans for a new Medical Center in Shiraz.
These plans gave rise to the New York-based Iran Foundation, which Nemazee established as a means to support his charitable projects in Shiraz. The Foundation helped raise money, and recruit American-trained doctors to staff the new hospital. By the time the Hospital opened in 1953, Nemazee had donated $10 million of his own money ($100 million, in today’s terms), in addition to devoting countless hours to the Iran Foundation and the city of Shiraz.
When it opened, the facility that would become known as Nemazee Hospital was described by the Iran Foundation:
“The Medical Center consists of a 250 bed General Hospital with adjacent Nursing School and residence, service building and housing for the resident staff. The site of the building group is an old garden of some 50 acres located in the western outskirts of Shiraz. Conveniently located on the same property are the new water works for the city of Shiraz with electric power facilities.”
The combination of the new Medical Center and the water works helped Mohamed Nemazee and the Iran Foundation bring modern medical treatments to the historic city of Shiraz. To this day, more than fifty years after the Iran Foundation helped launch the project, Nemazee Hospital stands as a leading medical facility where Iran’s future doctors and nurses learn their craft.
For more information, visit the official Nemazee Hospital site, or access the original Iran Foundation documents.