Dawn Images

Gen Z isn’t waiting around for anyone else to take action when it comes to keeping Karachi’s beaches clean and with its steadily growing beach cleanup drives, the Hammad Foundation is making sure that the youth’s enthusiasm doesn’t go to waste.

You may have heard of the Gen Z beach cleanups on social media, where videos of young people picking up garbage with bright smiles on their faces have gone viral. Most of those cleanups are organised by the Hammad Foundation.

The beach is one of Karachi’s rare spaces for calm and escape, but continues to buckle under the weight of unchecked littering. The garbage doesn’t just ruin the vibe; it actively harms the natural sanctuaries the city has to offer. In an attempt to address this, the Hammad Foundation launched its Gen Z beach clean-up drives in 2020 as part of its youth empowerment initiative — a project that, back then, struggled to gain even the smallest footing.

Founded in 2010, the Hammad Foundation independently began its cleanup drives with little response. Founder Hammad Tanveer told Images that despite the promotions, only four people showed up to their first drive in 2020.

“We did a good campaign for our friends and cousins. But hardly four people came,” he recalled.

Working in Manora, Hawkesbay and Kund Malir, the foundation only managed to attract only 30 to 40 volunteers in the subsequent years. That changed in 2025.

For its 13th beach cleanup drive, Tanveer’s team — expecting the usual modest turnout — was surprised when around 250 people showed up. Encouraged by this response, the foundation introduced a youth internship programme, bringing more than 80 college and university students on board as representatives.

That momentum peaked at their 15th beach cleanup drive, held on Thursday near Chunky Monkey on Seaview, which saw an overwhelming turnout of over 3,000 volunteers, according to Tanveer. Using social media and word-of-mouth through their interns, the foundation managed to get thousands of people out of their homes early on a public holiday to clean nearly two kilometres of Karachi’s coastline. Two members of Dawn’s team also volunteered at the drive and confirmed the scale of participation.

“There were many foreigners and celebrities, but we mostly highlighted our Gen Z volunteers as they are our actual celebrities,” Tanveer emphasised.

Although the clean-up was scheduled to begin at 8am, it started closer to 9:30am and continued until 2pm. Tanveer’s team worked until 8pm or 9pm to hand over the trash-filled bags to the Cantonment Board Clifton (CBC) for disposal.

The Dawn team noted that there were CBC workers on site.

According to Tanveer, the foundation arranged for 7,000 to 8,000 trash bags through sponsors, of which around 3,000 to 4,000 were filled. While proud of the turnout, he admitted feeling slightly disappointed that more bags weren’t used.

“One disappointment was that most of the volunteers had their first beach cleanup. They were more excited to see all the people than the beach cleanup,“ he said. “Obviously, there was media and everything. They were enjoying it. So that was also positive that they got out of their homes for Pakistan. Even if they didn’t pick up the trash, at least they came. That was a drawback I thought. If they had picked up the trash, all our garbage bags would have been full.”

Speaking about location selection, Tanveer said areas such as Nishan-e-Pakistan are chosen with security considerations in mind.

Beach cleanup drives are just one part of the Hammad Foundation’s broader youth empowerment project. Beyond environmental work, the foundation also focuses on women’s empowerment, employment initiatives and support for small businesses.

Photos via Hammad Foundation