Azad Foundation

Livelihoods with dignity for women

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Started in May 2008 as an incorporated Trust in Delhi, the basis of Azad Foundation (AF) emerges from the persistent gender inequities in India and the strong need to demonstrate engendered and high-return livelihood options for poor urban women. Azad Foundation provides livelihoods with dignity for resource-poor women living in urban areas in India.

Our aim is to level the employment field for disadvantaged women by providing bold livelihoods options that enhance women´ economic status, dignity, and decision-making within their families.

Azad Foundation is driven by the vision of a world where all women – in particular women from underprivileged backgrounds – enjoy full citizenship, earn a livelihood with dignity and generate wealth and value for all.

Azad Foundation´s mission is to equip resource-poor women with knowledge and skills so that they excel as professionals and entrepreneurs, and earn a "livelihood with dignity" in jobs and markets that had traditionally been closed to them.

We believe that when women are socially and economically empowered, they become catalysts of change – not just in their own lives, but also in their families and communities.
We work with resource-poor women to enable them to:
• imagine new roles for themselves
• get opportunities to work in safe and respectful environments.
• enhance not just their economic status but also their self-respect and dignity
• build social capital as they transform their lives and lives of people around them.

Programmes:
• Women on Wheels: The Women on Wheels programme empowers resource poor women to become professional drivers to enable them to gain remunerative ´livelihoods with dignity´. The programme also enhances their awareness on rights and enables them to become independent and confident individuals able to make informed choices and decisions in life.
• Women on Wheels Academy: Our Women on Wheels Academy provides residential training in Jaipur to enable resource-poor women from across India to become professional chauffeurs and confident and independent individuals.
• Communita Engagement: Outreach and Moblization - The programme outreach work aims to mobilize resource-poor women to exercise their right to living lives with dignity by choosing bold and remunerative livelihood options. Through outreach activities, we identify women from resource-poor backgrounds for the Women on Wheels programme. Our team engages deeply with women and their families and communities to create an environment that supports women in their choices and enables transformation.
• Research and advocacy: We want to ensure that our work extends beyond the trained women and their communities. We are committed to influence change on the national level to make non-traditional livelihood options with dignity available to women of all walks of life. To achieve this, it is important we connect with other initiatives that bring women into non-traditional employments. We also develop knowledge base through conducting research and documenting our work to build a case for addressing social concerns in livelihood training programmes.

Sakha Consulting Wings: Our sister organisation, Sakha Consulting Wings Pvt. Ltd. is a social enterprise, launched to provide safe transport solutions for women by women in urban India.

Veronika Miskech Fricova is the Programme Manager – Resource Mobilisation and International Partnerships – of Azad Foundation.

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.