Abdul Sattar Edhi, a man I admire, was a Pakistani philanthropist and a true humanitarian who founded Edhi Foundation, a non-profit welfare organisation based in Pakistan established in 1951 by Abdul Sattar Edhi himself, which runs the world’s largest ambulance network, an achievement which even the richest countries could not claim.
Along with the largest ambulance network of about 1800 ambulances, he established rehabilitation centres, homeless shelters, animal shelters and orphanages, Free hospital services, missing person services, marriage bureau services, free meal services, morgue services and graveyard services, all across Pakistan.
The foundation also ran a comprehensive education program, which, along with conventional education, also provides vocational activities like driving, pharmacy, and para-medic training in order to help people to make a better living.
Abdul Sattar Edhi expanded this foundation entirely by private donations from Pakistani citizens. Citizens from all walks of life trusted him and donated to his foundation with open heart.
In 2013, the Huffington Post claimed that he might be “the world’s greatest living humanitarian”.
BBC said that he was considered “Pakistan’s most respected figure and was seen by some as a saint”.
Over the period of 60 years, Abdul Sattar Edhi single-handedly changed the face of welfare in Pakistan.
Edhi Foundation has rehabilitated over 50,000 orphans and has trained over 40,000 nurses. The foundation runs more than 330 welfare centres throughout urban and rural areas of Pakistan and also has clinics for mentally and physically challenged people and centres for drug addicts.
Edhi Foundation is still the largest welfare organisation in Pakistan and has rescued over 20,000 abandoned infants. Infants and babies who have been abandoned for many reasons, including, rape and born out of wedlock, who were otherwise at risk of being killed.
They are cradles located outside most of the Edhi emergency centres for mothers or for other people to leave their infants and babies. The children are taken into custody from there and taken care of and often adopted by pre-screened families.
Edhi Foundation offers full service to people irrespective of ethnicity, religion, or status.
Edhi Foundation provides 24-hour emergency services across Pakistan. Edhi Foundation’s primary services are mainly in Pakistan, but it has a presence in South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and America.
Abdul Sattar Edhi was actually involved with the day-to-day activities of the foundation, from raising funds while standing on the streets of Pakistan to bathing corpses. He would be driving an ambulance around the city of Karachi to find injured or needy people and escort them to the right facility services, he or she needed.
He kept a smile on his face and was called “Nana” grandfather by the children and residents of “Edhi Homes”
Edhi was all for women’s empowerment. He supported the notion of working women that reflects on his organisation, out of 2000 paid workers, 500 of them are women.
On 1 April 2017, The State Bank of Pakistan commemorated a Rs.50 coin in honour of Abdul Sattar Edhi. He is the only social worker in Pakistan to have been honoured with the commemorative coin.
He was nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize.
About his faith, he said that he was a “humanitarian”. He said that empty words and long phrases do not impress God and one should show his faith “through actions”.
At the age of 11, his mother suffered a major stroke and became physically and mentally disabled. He has to give up on his schooling in order to look after his mother for about eight years. He dedicated his life, providing care to his mother, from hygiene needs to feeding needs and much more, until she passed away in 1947, the same year after the partition of India, he and his family travelled to Karachi, Pakistan, the newly established country.
His mother had brought him up teaching “love and care” for humans. I think this single sentence is enough to understand “what he became and how he became”.
By the time of his death, Edhi was registered as a parent or guardian of nearly 20,000 adopted children.
Abdul Saar Edhi was given a state funeral with a Guard of honour and a 19-gun salute. The only Pakistani without a state authority or a state role to receive this truly deserved honour.
The Edhi Foundation has held the Guinea world record for being the “world’s largest voluntary ambulance organisation” since 1997.
He lived a very simple life, dressing very moderately and owning very few personal belongings. In other words, he was a minimalist or non-materialistic person.
On 28 February 2017, Google paid tribute to Edhi with a Google doodle for his extraordinary services to humanity.
He wanted to donate his body organs to needy people, but because of his poor health, only his corneas were donated to two blind people.
Abdul Sattar Edhi, a man I admire, who celebrated life on earth for 88 years from February 28, 1928. to July 8, 2016, was a true humanitarian. He was a true reflection of God’s image of a man, for what is expected of a true man.
This article is written by Jordan Zaman.