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Writer's pictureGulmina Azam

Talha Azhar of Ideas Foundation

The founder of Ideas Foundation had not greeted me yet that a swarm of children had taken a hold of him, some just coming in to make their presence known, while other tugging on his shirt and ears. For a while I waited for some aggression that would send the children away, but it seemed as if Talha Azhar were as far away from that feeling as possible.


“I’m a very different person outside of SOS Village,” clarified Talha. “Here, to these children I am a cartoon straight out of TV.”


Ideas Foundation, explained the founder, came into being because Talha felt orphaned children did not have a family outside of their communities.


“The idea behind the foundation was that, while children do get food, housing and education through different means, there is no concept of a family for orphaned children.”



Talha further elaborated, “To teach someone to sit right or to button their shirt right, they need a big brother or a sister. I thought that while I do not have the means to give these children material items, I can give them brothers and sisters.”


Ideas Foundation, conceptualized in 2009 and established a year later, is based on the belief that orphaned children need a family from people amongst their community. Talha only asks that his recruits may take out 12 hours a year- 1 per month- to visit an orphanage nearest to them.


“What I always tell my team is that no matter where you are, how old you are or how high a post you have, make sure you do this one thing: make lives easier for people,” recalled Talha.


Talha credits his philanthropic ventures to the 2005 earthquake that shook Pakistan. Talha and his friends ventured to Kashmir and other northern areas in Pakistan to help out the atrocity. During that time, Talha came upon an orphanage in Attock.


“I looked at a board that had the orphanage’s name. It had a little girl’s picture on it said ‘Through the service of orphans you can get the earth and please Rasool Pak (SAWW)’ and it was like someone had pushed me in the right direction.” Talha made a decision to serve orphans that year and never looked back.



Ideas Foundation takes more than 20 orphanages under its wing and serves up to 7000 children. His attachment to SOS Children’s Village, he explains, is different.

“I’ve been coming here a month after it was established. SOS is my home.” Talha further says, “I don’t know what I did to deserve these children’s love but I will surely go to heaven for it.”


Talha explains how a recruit has to go through interviews and training to become and team member. He did comment, however, on how even after that a recruit might not work in Ideas Foundation.


“Children are innocent. They can detect the vibe you give off. If they like you, you’re good to go but if they sense a negative vibe, I can’t help anyone there.” He elaborated by saying, “Some recruits come to me complaining that the children won’t talk to them and I advise them two things: to clean out their hearts and to become more truthful.”

On that note, I left Talha to a crowd of children, some feeding him treats, some climbing on his lap and shoulders and others just waiting their turn to get his attention.


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