Last year was a special one for Azad, filled with many important milestones. We developed the new strategic plan, which sets our agenda for the next 5 years and our work has attained novel successes such as one of our trainees being placed as the first ever bus driver with Delhi Transport Corporation and the new partnership with Delhi Commission for Women, employing our drivers to drive to the rescue of the victims that call their helpline. We have established many new collaborations – with NSKFDC to provide our Women on Wheels capacity development training to women from the most marginalized community of manual scavengers; with SAMAAN in Indore and Jan Vikas and SAATH in Ahmedabad to enable hundreds of women in these cities to become self-sustaining professional drivers. 2015/2016 also saw a very successful launch of Women on Wheels in Kolkata.

As our new 2015/16 annual report shows, we reached over 86,000 people living in slums of Delhi, Jaipur, Kolkata and Indore. We empowered 229 women from disadvantaged backgrounds to become professional drivers and take charge of their lives. We started working with 197 men in communities, from which our female trainees come, towards creating more equal and violence free spaces for women.

Read more in our report about the challenges, opportunities and achievements that 2015/2016 brought us, and the promises we’ve made for next five years. With your support, we can make sure progress reaches the most marginalized. Thank you to everyone who stands with us.