Abdul Sattar Edhi

(The Richest poor man and The pride of Pakistan)

Abdul Sattar Edhi is nothing short of a phenomenon, an institution and a living legend. He is
a world-renowned social worker who devoted his entire life to the service of mankind. His
ambulances are here and there, and his clinics and homes are everywhere to help millions
of people. Edhi was born in 1928 at Bantwa, Gujrat in pre-partition India. His story is truly
inspiring. At the age of eleven his mother paralyzed. He spent his days and nights to nurse
and provide full-fledged services to his mother — cleaning, bathing, changing clothes and
feeding and hence he was too busy to complete his education in the school. But the very
first experience of hardship and self-sacrificing service turned out to be his tutor to make
him an “Angel Hero”.

He started his career as a street hawker, selling pencils and matchboxes in Karachi. Then
in 1951, he opened a tiny dispensary in Karachi’s poor neighborhood of Mithadar where his
priority was to give maximum help to the poor and the needy. He worked steadily and then
due to his devotion, determination for philanthropy proceeded to launch a nationwide
organization. Now he is the chief of a titanic organization that consists of ambulances,
clinics, maternity homes, lunatic asylums, homes for the physically and mentally
handicapped, blood banks, orphanages, adoption centers, mortuaries, shelters for runaway
children and battered women, schools, nursing courses, soup kitchens and a cancer
hospital. The entire set-up is now being smoothly run by some 7000 volunteers and a small
paid staff of teachers, doctors and nurses.

In 1966 he married Bilquis, a nurse by profession in one of his dispensary. Both have had
little education but strong will and altruism enabled them to run an international
organization. So without an iota of doubt, Abdus Sattar Edhi is now an international social
worker. He was the first individual to deliver personally medicines, food and clothing to
refugees in Bosnia, Ethiopia and Afghanistan. He and the drivers of his ambulances have
saved numerous lives in floods, train wrecks, civil conflicts and traffic accidents. After the
September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, he donated $100,000 to Pakistanis in
New York who had lost their jobs in the subsequent economic crisis.

Edhi foundation deals with emergency relief in natural disastrous such as fire, epidemics,
floods and earthquake. The focus is on long-term rehabilitation of the poor in case of hunger
and poverty. The foundation has an educational scheme, which deals with reading,
teaching, training, pharmacy and paramedical training to the most ignored section of the
society. It provides transportation facility in emergency to more than one million persons
annually. On the national scale there are 250 Edhi Centers. The organization saved 20,000
abandoned babies; trained 40,000 qualified nurses and 50,000 orphans are housed in Edhi
Homes. One million babies have been delivered in Edhi maternity centers. The organization
has 3500 workers and thousands of volunteers have been generating its own resources
from donations of people without any help of the Government. Edhi doctrine is a collective
welfare program based on self-help to ameliorate and develop present institutions in
Pakistan. It is really amazing that the lion’s share of the Edhi Foundation’s $10-million
budget comes from private donations from individual Pakistanis inside and outside the
country. The Edhi foundation refuses to take any help from the Government thereby
maintaining its independence. In the 1980’s, when Pakistan’s then-President Zia-ul-Haq
sent him a check for 500,000 rupees, Edhi sent it back. When the Italian government
offered him a million-dollar donation, he didn’t entertain it saying “Governments set
conditions that I cannot accept,” and declined to give any details.