Abdul sattar Edhi Biography

Died: At the age of 88

Family: Spouse/Ex: Bilquis Edhi

Country of Birth: Pakistan

Died: 8 July 2016

Place of Death: Karachi, Pakistan

Founder/Co-Founder: Edhi Foundation

Abdul Sattar Edhi was a famous Pakistani and humanitarian who founded the Edhi Foundation which runs hospitals, orphanages, homeless shelters and rehabilitation centers across Pakistan. One of the most respected personalities of the country, he is known for his selfless service to the abandoned, sick, destitute and homeless people. He was supported in every endeavor of his life by his wife Bilquis Edhi Anki, a nurse who, like her husband, was committed to humanitarian values. Born in India in the late 1920s, he was raised to sympathize with the less privileged. He spent his teenage years caring for his paralyzed and mentally ill mother, who nursed the sick. So his passion to do something went forward. Forced to move to Pakistan as a young man after the partition of India, he witnessed the horrors of war and the massive human suffering that followed. Inspired by the pain and suffering around him, he set out to lay the foundations of what would one day become the Edhi Foundation. After starting his charity work alone, he soon met some kindred spirits who helped him set up hospitals and orphanages across the country. A simple and open-minded individual, who promoted religious tolerance and advocated the rights of women to work outside the home.

Childhood and early life

Abdul Sattar Edhi was born on 1 January 1928 in a Memon family in Bantwa Manwadar, Bantwa, Gujarat, British India. From an early age, he was brought up to do good for the needy and the underprivileged. His mother suffered a stroke and became paralyzed when he was only 11 years old. Since then, he spent a lot of his time taking care of his mother. This experience instilled in him sensitivity and empathy for the sick, mentally ill and challenged. His mother died when he was 19 years old.

India was partitioned in 1947, after which Edhi and his family migrated to Pakistan. It was a terrible time of widespread violence and destruction in which millions of people died.

The last year

While Edhi managed to escape alive, he faced a huge struggle to rebuild his life in Karachi, Pakistan. At that time the young man was around 20 years old, he was poor and destitute. Yet his personal troubles did not prevent him from joining a charity run by Memon, the Islamic religious community to which his family belonged. However, he was disappointed that the charity only served the people of the Memon community but not others. Initially, he got a job in a wholesale shop and later became a commission agent selling cloth in Karachi's wholesale market. . During this time he became very serious about serving the sick and the needy and established his own small medical center where he also cared for late night visitors. In 1951, he founded the Edhi Foundation in Karachi to provide 24-hour medical care to the needy. hours of emergency medical assistance and maternity facilities to homeless and destitute women, among other services. In 1957, the Asian flu epidemic broke out and Edhi realized the urgent need to expand its services. With the epidemic spreading in Karachi, the number of patients increased steadily and there were very few doctors to care for them. Determined to do his best, he begged for donations on the streets to treat the growing number of patients and appealed to medical students to volunteer their services.

Eventually he received a generous donation from a wealthy businessman who helped him buy his first ambulance. In the years to come, her selfless service gained public attention and donations soon started pouring in, enabling her to build many hospitals, orphanages, women's shelters and rehabilitation centers not only in Karachi but also in other cities of Pakistan. Apart from medical care and emergency services, the organization also provided assistance to needy women and children and assisted in cases of missing persons. It also helps to meet the cost of cremation and crematorium for the burial of abandoned and unidentified bodies even in times of calamity. The foundation also reaches out to the international community and in 2005 provided $100,000 for relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina.

Some of his commendable works

Abdul Sattar Edhi founded the Edhi Foundation, which today operates the world's largest ambulance service (1,500 of them in operation) and offers 24-hour emergency services. It also runs charitable hospitals, orphanages, homeless shelters, women's shelters, and rehabilitation centers for drug addicts and the mentally ill.

Awards and Achievements

Abdul Sattar Edhi received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service in 1986.

He also received several other international honors including the Lenin Peace Prize (1988), the Paul Harris Fellow from Rotary International (1993), the Peace Prize from the former USSR (1998), and the Ben International Balzan Prize for Humanity, Peace and Fraternity (2000)