Awaz Foundation Pakistan: Centre for Development Services
Unlike most of its contemporary NGOs’ which came into being in the aftermath of a natural disaster or a man-made one- AwazCDS-Pakistan was not a consequence of any particular such an incident. It was founded by Mr. Zia-ur-Rehman & the group of local university graduates who were politically enlightened and realized that they owe a great deal of return to the society at large in 1995. Widespread ignorance, poverty, sectarianism, violence, non-democratic culture & values, human especially women rights violations and social backwardness of the region of Southern Punjab because of the feudalism and constant military regimes only provided extra impetus to this group of youth. “Awaz” is an Urdu word, which means ‘voice’. The whole idea was to provide a platform to facilitate and capacitate marginalized communities to raise their voice against socio-economic and political disparities of the region.
