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The mission of
IHDF
is: To enhance the quality of life for all members of the society,
especially those who are poor, suffering, or are otherwise disadvantaged.
To invest in today's children --the leaders of tomorrow-- through knowledge
and character-building education and guidance for them, their parents and
their communities.
IHDF
is dedicated to help these street children who are vulnerable to
suffer high risk in Pakistan. Recent estimates show that there are about
100,000 such children in Pakistan, many of whom work, live and sleep in
the streets of its most important city, Karachi. Our main purpose is
twofold: first, to protect these children from the dangers of the streets
in big cities (from mere hunger to violence and abuses of any kind) and
second to provide them opportunities of a smooth integration into a more
valuable life than what they presently suffer from.
Taking into account the specificity of their
nature, (their brash and violent character, their bad habits, but also
their desperate need to be loved). Several successive steps are needed to
re-insert them successfully into a normal life style:-
 Provide for them a place where they can feel free to come for rest, for
medical care, for food, or just for friendship. At this stage, children
should feel free to come and go as they wish. They are only asked to
respect the 3 basic rules of the house (no smoking, no drinking, no
fighting) when staying inside. Usually children will come for a night or
two, and eventually one day will decide to stay longer.
When basic needs (food and shelter) are fulfilled children slowly learn
the rules of life in a family like structure in a group of 10-15, with at
least one adult, who plays the role of a guardian. Decisions are taken by
general consensus, instead of force. Children run the house themselves,
each member of the group contributing to do part of the housework
(cooking, cleaning, washing). This allows them to become responsible and
helps them understand that they can do something useful for all, and work
towards a common goal instead of looking for their own advantages all the
time.
After a few months of such a life, children should have gained
self-respect and should be able to think about their future in more
constructive ways. When the time has come, they are then given the
possibility to re-integrate into the normal flow of life, as it should be
going back to school, or learning professional skills and looking for jobs
which in turn, provide them the opportunity of finding for themselves a
more secure future.
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