The tenth death anniversary of the great humanitarian and philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi was observed today.
Glowing tributes were paid to him by the Edhi Foundation and diginitaries of the country. Abdul Sattar Edhi was born on February 28, 1928, in Gujarat, British India. He started welfare services in 1951. Edhi established the world’s largest volunteer ambulance network along with shelters for homeless people and animals and orphanages across the country.
Many international and national awards, including Asian Noble, the Lenin Peace Prize and Nishan-e-Imtiaz were bestowed upon him in recognition of his services for humanity. He breathed his last on this day in 2016 at the age of 88 in Karachi.
Abdul Sattar Edhi was a Pakistani humanitarian, philanthropist and ascetic who founded the Edhi Foundation, which runs the world’s largest volunteer ambulance network, along with homeless shelters, animal shelters, rehabilitation centres, and orphanages across Pakistan.
Edhi’s charitable activities expanded greatly in 1957 when an Asian flu epidemic originating in China swept through Pakistan and the rest of the world. Donations allowed him to buy his first ambulance the same year. He later expanded his charity network with the help of his wife Bilquis Edhi. Following his death, his son Faisal Edhi took over as head of the Edhi Foundation.
Over his lifetime, the Edhi Foundation expanded, backed entirely by private donations from Pakistani citizens across class, which included establishing a network of 1,800 ambulances. By the time of his death, Edhi was registered as a parent or guardian of nearly 20,000 adopted children. He is known amongst Pakistanis as the “Angel of Mercy” and is considered to be Pakistan’s most respected and legendary figure. In 2013, The Huffington Post claimed that he might be “the world’s greatest living humanitarian”.
Edhi maintained a hands-off management style and was often critical of the corruption commonly found within the religious organizations, clergy and politicians. He was a strong proponent of religious tolerance in Pakistan and extended his support to the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the 1985 famine in Ethiopia. He was nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize. Edhi received several domestic as well as international awards such as Ramon Magsaysay Award and the UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize.
Edhi was born into a Memon Muslim family in Bantva, Gujarat, India. He publicly expressed that he was not a “very religious person”, and that he was “neither for religion or against it”. On his faith, he stated that he was a “humanitarian”, telling others that “empty words and long phrases do not impress God” and to “show Him your faith” through action. His mother had brought him up teaching love and care for humans.
Edhi dedicated his life to aiding the poor. Over the course of sixty years, he single-handedly changed the face of welfare in Pakistan. He founded the Edhi Foundation. Edhi was known for his ascetic lifestyle, owning only two pairs of clothes, never taking salary from his organization, and living in one room with kitchenette at the Foundation’s headquarters in the heart of Karachi.
Additionally, his previously established welfare trust, named the Edhi Trust, was restarted with an initial sum of Rs5000. The trust was later renamed after his wife as the Bilquis Edhi Trust. Widely regarded and respected as a guardian and savior for the poor, Edhi began receiving numerous donations which allowed him to expand his services. As of 2016, the Edhi Foundation continues to grow in both size and service and currently remains the largest welfare organization in Pakistan. Since its inception, the Edhi Foundation has rescued over 20,000 abandoned infants, rehabilitated over 50,000 orphans, and has trained over 40,000 nurses. It also runs more than 330 welfare centres throughout rural and urban Pakistan that operate as food kitchens, rehabilitation homes, shelters for abandoned women and children, and clinics for the mentally and physically challenged.