Abdul Sattar Edhi was a Pakistani philanthropist, ascetic, and humanitarian who founded the Edhi Foundation, which runs the world’s largest volunteer ambulance network, along with various homeless shelters, animal shelters, rehabilitation centres, and orphanages across Pakistan. By the time of his death, Edhi was registered as a parent or guardian of nearly 20,000 adopted children of whom he was an active caretaker.
He is known amongst Pakistanis as the “Angel of Mercy” and is considered to be Pakistan’s most respected and legendary figure. He was dubbed to be Pakistan’s equivalent of Mother Teresa by India Today in 1990.
He was nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize, including by Malala Yousafzai. Edhi received several awards including the Gandhi Peace Award, Ahmadiyya Muslim Peace Prize and the UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize. On 28 February 2017, Google celebrated Edhi with a Google Doodle hailing his “super-efficient” ambulance service. On 31 March 2017, a Rs.50 cupronickel commemorative coin was issued across the country upon the recommendation of the State Bank of Pakistan to Prime Minister Sharif, who decided to commemorate Edhi’s services on the national level.Edhi became the only social worker and the fifth Pakistani personality to have been honoured with a commemorative coin.
Personal Life
ABDUL SATTAR EDHI was born in 1928, in Bantva, a small village near Joona Gurh, in Gujarat State of India. From age 11, he cared for his mother after she was paralysed. Shortly after this, Edhi dropped out of school to provide full-time care to his mother. At home, he would cater to her needs by bathing her, taking her to the bathroom, feeding her, and much more. He dedicated the following years of his life caring for her until she died in early 1947. In 1947, after partition of the former British colony into two separate independent states, India and Pakistan, Abdul Sattar Edhi’s family, who were Muslims, moved to Pakistan. He was not a very religious person on his faith, he stated that he was “a humanitarian” and spiritual, telling others that “empty words and long phrases do not impress God” and to “show Him your faith” through action.
Through his work, Edhi met Bilquis Bano, a nurse who worked at an Edhi Trust dispensary. In 1965, Edhi married Bilquis. They had four children, two daughters and two sons. Bilquis is responsible for running the free maternity home at the foundation’s headquarters in Karachi and organizes the adoption of abandoned babies including those who are otherwise at risk of being killed as a potential consequence of being born out of wedlock or due to rape. Edhi was known for his ascetic lifestyle he could have become a politician or a wealthy man but he did not serve the poor for his personal gain. He owned only two pairs of clothes, never took a salary from his organisation and lived in a small apartment next to his main office. Edhi often ran into trouble with Islamist terrorist organizations and conservative religious and political leaders who opposed him because of his offering of full humanitarian services to everyone—particularly low-class citizens, Hindus, and other non-Muslims.
Social work and Edhi Foundation
He said he felt an urge to do welfare work after “observing the environment I was living in, where injustice, bribery and robbery were common”. By 1951, he had bought a small shop in Karachi and opened a free dispensary to aid those in need of humanitarian services. Since then, he began to build up what would eventually become the Edhi Foundation. He established his first welfare centre in 1957 and then the Edhi Trust, the trust was later renamed after his wife as the Bilquis Edhi Trust.
Edhi’s charitable activities expanded in 1957 when an Asian flu epidemic swept through Karachi. He borrowed money for tents to treat people who were only asked to contribute financially if they could afford it. “It was the first mass recognition of my work”. A single generous donation from a businessman, a fellow member of the Memon community, allowed Edhi to buy his first ambulance, which he drove himself around the city. When he started his work, he was penniless. He sat on the street and asked for donations — not for himself but to help people in greater need. From the very beginning, people passing Edhi on the street trusted him to do good with their money. He did not take money from the government, saying instead that he wished to domesticate the habit of giving in the Pakistani people.
Abdul Sattar Edhi establishes the Edhi Foundation which over the years has become the largest and best organized social welfare system in Pakistan and in the Third World. The Edhi Foundation operates on the basis of local volunteers and through private donations, in a spirit of tolerance and solidarity that goes beyond racial and religious barriers.
To this day, the Edhi Foundation continues to grow in both size and service and currently remains the largest welfare organization in Pakistan. In a country with a negligible public welfare system Edhi offered cradle-to-grave services. Some 20,000 people have Edhi registered as a parent or guardian after he and his wife began taking in abandoned babies. They started to place cribs outside their offices where unwanted infants could be left. It was a court case filed by Edhi that ultimately won the right for abandoned children with unknown parents to get the vital national identity card.
Since its inception, the Edhi Foundation has rehabilitated over 50,000 orphans and has trained over 40,000 nurses. It also runs more than 330 welfare centres across the country, being present anywhere from big cities to small towns and remote rural areas, primarily focused on providing medical aid, family planning and emergency assistance. The centres operates as food kitchens, rehabilitation homes, shelters for abandoned women and children, and clinics for the mentally and physically handicapped.
It runs the world’s largest volunteer ambulance service (operating over 1,500 of them) and offers 24-hour emergency services. Outside of its main base of operations all over South Asia, the Edhi Foundation has also run relief operations in the Middle East, Africa, the Caucasus region, Eastern Europe, and the United States. In 2005, the foundation donated US$100,000 to relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina. As of 2020, the Foundation has international head offices present in the United States, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Canada, Australia, Nepal, Bangladesh, India and Japan.
His son Faisal Edhi, wife Bilquis Edhi and daughters managed the daily operations of the organization during his ill health and continue to do so after his death.
International Awards
- Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service (1986)
- Lenin Peace Prize (1988)
- Paul Harris Fellow from Rotary International (1993)
- Peace Prize from the former USSR, for services during the Armenian earthquake disaster (1988)
- Hamdan Award for volunteers in Humanitarian Medical Services (2000), UAE
- International Balzan Prize (2000) for Humanity, Peace and Brotherhood, Italy
- Peace and Harmony Award (2001), Delhi
- Peace Award (2004), Mumbai
- Peace Award (2005), Hyderabad Deccan
- Gandhi Peace Award (2007), Delhi
- Seoul Peace Prize (2008), Seoul
- Honorary doctorate from the Institute of Business Administration Karachi (2006)
- UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize (2009)
- Ahmadiyya Muslim Peace Prize (2010)
- Honorary Doctorate by the University of Bedfordshire (2010)
- London Peace Award (2011), London
National Awards
- Silver Jubilee Shield by College of Physicians and Surgeons (1962–1987)
- Moiz ur rehman Award (2015)
- The Social Worker of Sub-Continent by Government of Sindh (1989)
- Nishan-e-Imtiaz, civil decoration from the Government of Pakistan (1989)
- Recognition of meritorious services to oppressed humanity during the 1980s by Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Government of Pakistan (1989)
- Pakistan Civic Award from the Pakistan Civic Society (1992)
- Jinnah Award for Outstanding Services to Pakistan was conferred in April 1998 by The Jinnah Society. This was the first Jinnah Award conferred on any person in Pakistan
- Shield of Honor by Pakistan Army (E & C)
- Khidmat Award by the Pakistan Academy of Medical ScienceS
- Bacha Khan Aman (Peace) Award in 1991
- Human Rights Award by Pakistan Human Rights Society
- 2013 Person of the Year by the readers of The Express Tribune
Death and Funeral
On 25 June 2013, Edhi was hospitalized due to failing kidneys; it was announced that he would be on dialysis for the rest of his life unless he found a kidney donor. Later he died on 8 July 2016 at the age of 88 due to complete kidney failure after having been placed on a ventilator.
Then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif declared national mourning on the day following Edhi’s death and announced a state funeral for him. He became the third person in Pakistan’s history to receive a state gun carriage funeral after Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Zia-ul-Haq. He was the only Pakistani without a state authority or a state role to receive a state funeral. According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), state honour was given to Edhi by a guard of honour and a 19-gun salute. He was laid to rest at Edhi Village in Karachi.