Primarily Azad was a group of students, teachers and alumni of University of Karachi known as Azad Group. The group discussions centered on social problems, education and class disparity. The group also formed a theater to highlight these issues. Class divisions and poverty were the most talked about issues as these created dissentions among different strata of society that stemmed out from the very core, i.e., education. The sector most affected were the children confused as why they were discriminated against due to their social, economic or ethnic backgrounds.
Thus in 1998, the executive body 0f Azad decided to get their group registered and converted into a foundation. The Foundation initially chose to work for children development but during the course of their investigations found out that there were thousands of children stranded in streets who ran away due to poverty and lack of resources. These children were in dire straits due to misfortune befallen on them and had no hope to survive their teens. This phenomenon prompted Azad Foundation to specifically address the problem of street children in Pakistan.
Vision
Azad Foundation envisions a world where the rights of all children are realized, where every child is protected from violence, exploitation and abuse through State mechanisms and where children no longer have to live or work on streets.
Mission
Azad Foundation is committed to improve the well-being and self-esteem of alienated and excluded street children, through unconditional positive support, whenever and wherever necessary; with the view to reintegrate street children with their family and society. It shall ensure and establish that every street child is enabled to contribute to the structure of society in the sense of harmony, peace and socially integrated living.
