The Azadi Project’s work with refugee and marginalized women has been covered by media outlets internationally. You can read about it here.
Azadi means FREEDOM in Hindi, Farsi, and Urdu. And at The Azadi Project, this forms the ethos of everything we do.
Our work with refugees centers primarily around women and young children — those most affected by conflict of any kind. Apart from being susceptible to gender-based violence and trafficking, the unseen mental trauma due to forced displacement and separation from loved ones is a global crisis in the making. This is where we try to make a difference.
It’s important that you as the people who are affected, as the actual refugees , are empowered yourself. I really welcome this initiative started by The Azadi Project .
United Nations Chief Spokesperson
The Azadi Project’s mission to create a world where refugee and migrant women are empowered is so very close to my heart.
(COO) of the social networking company Meta
When I met with women refugees from Ukraine, they were traumatized by the war and anxious for themselves, their children and about the future.
Activist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace
We love working with a global community of people and organizations. Here’s what some of them have said about us:
“The time I spent with everyone at the session was a very vulnerable moment for me. I reflected on all of that after the session.”
Please visit our social media platforms for more information on our upcoming events
Creates strong women leaders and role models
Provides a safe space for participants to offer and seek comfort
Focuses in holistic development through psychosocial support sessions
Sessions are led by trained facilitators
Uses creative tools such as storytelling and art therapy
Participants bond over shared stories
Participants control the narrative, and using their own voice and agency
Fosters a sense of community
Provides training of trainers
On Mental Health Day, Azadi is making sure that mental health support for refugee and asylum seekers is visible through an expert-led webinar and a special fundraiser.
If you are interested to see the results of our programs in Greece please check this report.
Individual therapy was offered to women who were dealing with more severe problems. More detailed information and donation campaign can be found here
In June 2022, we also partnered with the Nobel Women’s Initiative to host three women Nobel laureates in Poland on World Refugee Day to raise awareness about the condition of Ukrainian women refugees and local feminist organizations.
We partnered with Rethinking Refugees to organize and host India’s first-ever event focusing solely on refugee and statelessness issues. The four-day event (December 15-18, 2022) included panel discussions by renowned experts and activists, charity performances, a photo exhibition, and more. The event, ‘Rethinking Refugees – Azadi to co-exist’, was a mix of in-person and online sessions that promoted a holistic understanding of the contemporary refugee situation worldwide and in India.
For more information please refer to the press release (link)
Findings from the Nobel peace laureates’ delegation to Poland and Ukraine
20-24 June 2022 organized in partnership with the Nobel Women’s Initiative
It was founded in 2018 by Priyali Sur who, as a journalist, had reported extensively on the emerging refugee situation in the Middle East and Europe since 2015. With seed money from her alma mater School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, and mentoring support from the Atlantic Council, where she was a Fellow; Azadi conducted its first pilot program providing digital storytelling skills to women refugees in Athens, Greece in September 2018. This was done with the support of Vanessa Davaroukas and Lluis Dalmau, two former SAIS, Johns Hopkins students.
Since its inception in 2018, Azadi has impacted the lives of more than 5,500 refugee women and its programs have benefitted displaced women from Afghanistan, Iraq, Myanmar, Niger, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen. Our beneficiaries emerge as women leaders bringing positive change in their communities as well. Azadi excels at putting a gender lens on the challenges faced by refugee and marginalized women. We have run programs across the global south from Africa to the Middle East and South Asia. Azadi is advised by top international experts with extensive experience in refugee rights, women’s rights, and mental health.
Azadi envisions a world where women from refugee and marginalized communities can access their rights universally: and are not limited by geographical borders, or their race, religion, ethnicity, and/or sexual orientation.
Our mission is to empower refugee, migrant, and marginalized women and girls to unleash their true potential and transform them into community leaders. We do this by providing leadership and livelihood skills along with psychosocial support in safe spaces.
The Azadi Project’s aim is to enhance refugee women and girls’ voice and agency by providing leadership and livelihood skills, and psychosocial support to women from refugee and marginalized communities globally.
Our Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) programs offer an outlet for healing from mental trauma while building confidence – all in a safe and judgment-free space.
Our virtual and on-site workshops provide basic spoken English, digital literacy, public speaking, and other soft skills along with sessions on gender equality awareness to prepare them for leadership roles within their communities and a professional career.
Our participants report reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression and a greater sense of well-being that equips them to take on leadership roles. Many of them have also joined Azadi as consultants and volunteers to have a larger, direct impact on their community.
During the COVID pandemic, our public health activities delivered critical supplies and information to over 5,000 refugee women. Since our inception, we have benefitted displaced women from some of the most conflicted-affected countries of Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Myanmar, Niger, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen.
Refugees — who have experienced horrific traumas in their home countries and migrated through brutal conditions — are often re-traumatized by violence and dire conditions in camps. Women’s trauma is particularly acute due to gender-based violence — including domestic violence, rape by smugglers, trafficking, and sexual assault in prison. Social norms in countries of origin make it difficult for women to request help for anxiety, depression, and PTSD among others. Refugees’ right to mental health services is enshrined in international law. And untreated mental health issues cause irreversible harm that persists across generations, according to UNHCR. Yet despite the huge need for psychosocial support, few are able to access it. Distressed or anxious asylum seekers are more likely to be rejected by immigration officials, with often devastating consequences, such as deportation to life-threatening circumstances in their countries of origin.
Their mental health crisis is exacerbated by a lack of opportunities to sustain themselves. When Sedigeh, an Afghan refugee arrived in Greece as a refugee with her husband and two children, she like most other refugees had to survive on the food packets and the 90 Euros given to them per month by UNHCR. There were no jobs for women like her. She was a refugee woman of color with almost no English language skills. Five years later in Poland– Alina – a single mother and a Ukrainian refugee woman, faced the same problem. Despite a Master’s degree, the only jobs available to her were cleaning jobs. Like Sedigeh and Alina, most migrant and refugee women do not find employment in the skilled sector. Even with the acute labor shortage exacerbated by the COVID pandemic, qualified refugee women are still unable to find jobs.
Systemic barriers that prevent refugee women from accessing paid work can include unfair expectations of caregiving responsibilities, language issues, as well as gender inequality at the workplace. In addition, labor participation of refugee and migrant communities as a whole is low due to intersectional bias and negative stereotyping. When these intersectionalities and biases meet, it becomes that much harder to find skilled jobs and integrate into host communities.
Our unique community-based model was created to meet the various challenges faced by women from refugee and marginalized communities.
Run by trained facilitators and therapists, these sessions are conducted in a safe space for refugee and marginalized women to share feelings with others in similar situations.The group sessions de-escalate the women’s emergency mental health situations by providing peer support. The forum helps refugee women deal with trauma; as well as mental health illnesses like depression, anxiety, and PTSD using a range of creative tools including art therapy.
The program builds resilience and confidence to transform women refugees into leaders and agents of change, enabling them to identify solutions to mental health and gender equity issues and implement them in their community.
The component of providing leadership, public-speaking and livelihood skills is designed to provide a holistic learning opportunity to marginalized and refugee women. This trains them to enter the job market and take on leadership roles. Women who represent marginalized and migrant communities, are women of color, or/and survivors of violence are prioritized.
Biba is a single mother of five children and lives in the Tillabery region in Niger. In the absence of jobs and with no possibility to go to school in Niger, she followed her husband to Libya in order to find work. Biba’s dream of a better life in Libya was overshadowed by experiences of racism in everyday life. After 9 years she was forced to return to Niger as the war broke out. Back in her home country, she wants to help build a better future for the next generation “All I am asking for is an equal and fair chance for everyone.”