Azad Receives 2024 Champion of Youth Award from EMpower

Azad Foundation is honored to receive the 2024 Champion of Youth Award from its long-time grant partner, EMpower – The Emerging Markets Foundation. EMpower’s support over the last decade has been indispensable to Azad’s journey.

When Azad and its strategic partner Sakha began in 2008, envisioning young women in the  non-traditional livelihood of driving was a completely new idea. Today, over 3,500 women trained by Azad have been placed as professional chauffeurs and riders through Sakha across India, and now in Hungary as well. As we traveled this road, there emerged new areas that needed work—from creating decent livelihood opportunities for women drivers, building an environment of support in communities, to promoting gender sensitivity in the markets. But there also came partners like EMpower who made the journey easier and ensured that our impact reached those who needed it most.

We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Nisha Dhawan, Vice President, Impact & Influence, for walking this path with us, and to Cynthia Steele, President and CEO, for her leadership and support. Most importantly, we recognize and thank each of the brave women riders and drivers to whom this award is dedicated. They have “trodden the road not taken” and demonstrated a new path to freedom and autonomy for many more young girls and women to follow.

We hope for this friendship and partnership with EMpower to continue for many years to come, as we strive to empower young women from marginalized communities to break barriers at home and in the workforce, and become the ‘SHEROS’ of their own lives.