Freedom Foundation Trust
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Mission Statement
Freedom Foundation has been the pioneers of HIV/AIDS & Substance Abuse interventions in India, since 1993, especially in the area of comprehensive care & support in India. Freedom Foundation is credited to have set up the first comprehensive Community based comprehensive care and support center in India at Bangalore and is recognized as a model by NACO and other International agencies. During a time when HIV meant shame & silence, Freedom which was working in the field of de-addiction, opened its doors to people infected with HIV. The Foundation has a plethora of very successful intervention covering a wide spectrum of activities and caters to all India clientele and some from abroad. Our projects are situated in the metros of Bangalore & Hyderabad (Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh): • De-addiction Center at Bangalore • ART Clinic at Bangalore & Hyderabad • Prevention of Mother To Child Transmission of HIV at Bangalore & Hyderabad Childcare intervention at Bangalore & Hyderabad
About This Cause
Freedom Foundation is a charitable trust established in 1993 by Ashok Rau & Karl Sequeira(late) to work in the development sector with focus on rehabilitation. With a vision and mission that lays emphasis on holistic treatment & rehabilitation of persons living with the diseases of Addiction & HIV/AIDS, the Foundation offers a basket of comprehensive services aimed at health & wholeness, education & literacy and livelihood &sustenance. With the purpose of “Changing Lives & Making a Difference” its interventions are recognized & supported by the Central and State governments of India, international bi-lateral and multi- lateral donor agencies and local citizenry. It is credited to have established the first care facility in 1995 for HIV in the country at a time when AIDS was deemed a death sentence cloaked with stigma & discrimination. It was recognized by National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) of India as a model. Since then it has replicated & expanded its services to multiple districts across the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu & Goa with the sole intent of providing respite, restoration & rehabilitation. In the work environment the Foundation is one of the first organizations to offer Employee Assistance Programs on addressing issues of Chemical Dependency & HIV/AIDS and has worked extensively with managements, trade unions & employees both in private & public sector. The Foundation has been the recipient of the 2nd & 4th rounds of funding from the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria (GFATM). These projects enabled the Foundation to build further on its vast and varied experiences within the HIV treatment segment with emphasis on Anti-Retro-Viral Therapy. Way back in its formative years it was instrumental in bringing to the fore the needs of women & children affected by AIDS and went a step further to respond to the emerging needs by establishing various programs for women and children including dedicated long stay homes at Bangalore & Hyderabad that caters to infected & abandoned orphans and currently cares for 52 children. Prevention being one of the fundamental verticals in all its interventions the Foundation was the first to bring together a consortium of civil society players for the purpose of preventing transmission of HIV from mother to child way back in 2000 that continues till date to avert infection to infants thereby working towards halting the spread of HIV. In 2006 the Foundation in partnership with the Government of Nigeria and the Tulsi Chanrai Foundation wascontracted to replicate its multiple care strategies through the provision of technical assistance resulting in successful pilot projects being established in the regions of Ibadan, Oyedeji & Kafanchan to name a few. In 2007 the Foundation established contact with the Drexel College of Medicine, Philadelphia USA for research purposes and this partnership has blossomed into what is now referred to as the Freedom Foundation-Drexel Medicine Clinical and Translational Research Center, which has been awarded a National Institute of Health (NIH),grant in 2011 for a period of 5 years. Overall the Foundation employs multi-disciplinarian teams consisting of health management & health care professionals and at its peak employed over 400 staff. As of now due to various projects completing their term theFoundation has a team of 150 plus staff. With all its work coming to the fore it did not take long for both international and national recognition & commendations to follow for both the Foundation and its founder Dr. Ashok Rau, however these have served to only strengthen its commitment towards reaching out to those less fortunate and making a difference. UNAIDS published a case study of the Freedom Foundation as a “ Center of Excellence and Best Practice” on Comprehensive Care in 1999. In 2001 the first Commonwealth Award for “ Action on HIV/AIDs was conferred on the Foundation. The US based ASHOKA - Innovators for the Public, conferred a Fellowship award to Ashok Rau for outstanding Social Entrepreneurship. In 2004 the Terry Stanford Institute of Public Health, Duke University USA inducted Ashok Rau as a Senior Research Fellow and conferred a Honorary Doctorate on him as well.2004 also brought the award “Excellence in Community Care” from UNAIDS presented by Dr. Peter Piot, Executive Director UNAIDS. Dr. Rau is a visiting faculty at Yale University and is also the elected president for the Indian Peoples Alliance for Combating HIV/AIDS (IPACHA).