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'''Abdul Sattar Edhi''' ([[Memoni language|Memoni]], {{lang-ur|{{Nastaliq|عبدالستار ایدھی}}}}; 1 January 1928 – 8 July 2016) was a prominent [[Pakistani people|Pakistani]] [[philanthropist]], [[social activist]], [[Asceticism|ascetic]] and [[humanitarian]]. He was the founder and head of the [[Edhi Foundation]] in [[Pakistan]] and ran the organization for the better part of six decades. He was known as '''Angel of Mercy''' and was also considered a living legend before his death.<ref name="thestar.com"/> He was called "the greatest living humanitarian in the world" in a 2013 article in [[The Huffington Post]].<ref>[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/06/abdul-sattar-edhi_n_3223839.html], The Huffington Post. Retrieved 24 March 2016</ref>
'''Abdul Sattar Edhi''' ([[Memoni language|Memoni]], {{lang-ur|{{Nastaliq|عبدالستار ایدھی}}}}; 1 January 1928 – 8 July 2016) was a prominent [[Pakistani people|Pakistani]] [[philanthropist]], [[social activist]], [[Asceticism|ascetic]] and [[humanitarian]]. He was the founder and head of the [[Edhi Foundation]] in [[Pakistan]] and ran the organization for the better part of six decades. He was known as '''Angel of Mercy''' and was also considered a living legend before his death.<ref name="thestar.com"/>


==Early life==
==Early life==

Revision as of 23:29, 8 July 2016

Angel of Mercy[1]
[2]بابائے خدمت
Abdul Sattar Edhi
Born
Abdul Sattar Edhi

(1928-01-01)1 January 1928
Bantva, Bantva Manavadar, Western India States Agency, British Raj (Present day Bantva, Gujarat, India)
Died8 July 2016(2016-07-08) (aged 88)
Karachi, Pakistan
Cause of deathKidney Failure
Resting placeEdhi Village
NationalityPakistani
Known forSocial work
Simple lifestyle
Humanitarian[3]
TitleThe Richest Poor Man
SpouseBilquis Edhi
ChildrenFaisal Edhi, Kutub Edhi
Parents
  • Abdul Shakoor Edhi (father)
  • Ghurba Edhi (mother)
Awards1988 Lenin Peace Prize (1988)
Nishan-e-Imtiaz (1989)
Ahmadiyya Muslim Peace Prize (2010)
WebsiteOfficial website

Abdul Sattar Edhi (Memoni, Urdu: عبدالستار ایدھی; 1 January 1928 – 8 July 2016) was a prominent Pakistani philanthropist, social activist, ascetic and humanitarian. He was the founder and head of the Edhi Foundation in Pakistan and ran the organization for the better part of six decades. He was known as Angel of Mercy and was also considered a living legend before his death.[1]

Early life

Edhi was born in 1928 in Bantva in the Gujarat, British India.[5] When he was eleven, his mother became paralysed from a stroke and she died when Edhi was 19. His personal experiences and care for his mother during her illness, caused him to develop a system of services for old, mentally ill and challenged people. The partition of India led Edhi and his family to migrate to Pakistan in 1947. He then shifted to Karachi to work in a market at a wholesale shop. His mother would give him 1 paisa for his meals and another to give to a beggar. He initially started as a peddler, and later became a commission agent selling cloth in the wholesale market in Karachi. After a few years, he established a free dispensary with help from his community. Additionally, he established a welfare trust, named the Edhi Trust.[6]

Charity work

Finding himself in a new city without any resources, Edhi resolved to dedicate his life to aiding the poor, and over the next sixty years, he single handedly changed the face of welfare in Pakistan.[citation needed] Edhi founded the Edhi Foundation, with an initial sum of a five thousand rupees. Regarded as a guardian for the poor, Edhi began receiving numerous donations, which allowed him to expand his services. To this day, the Edhi Foundation continues to grow in both size and service, and is currently the largest welfare organisation 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.[citation needed] It also runs more than 330 welfare centres in rural and urban Pakistan which operate as food kitchens, rehabilitation homes, shelters for abandoned women and children and clinics for the mentally handicapped.

The Edhi Foundation runs the world's largest ambulance service and operates free nursing homes, orphanages, clinics, women's shelters, and rehab centres for drug addicts and mentally ill individuals.[7] It has run relief operations in Africa, Middle East, the Caucasus region, eastern Europe and United States where it provided aid following the New Orleans hurricane of 2005. His son Faisal Edhi, wife Bilquis Edhi and daughters managed the daily operations of the organization during his ill health.

Edhi was influenced by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Mother Teresa.

Recognition

Together with his wife, Bilquis Edhi, he received the 1986 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service. He was also the recipient of the Lenin Peace Prize and the Balzan Prize. In 2006, Institute of Business Administration Pakistan conferred an honoris causa degree of Doctor of Social Service Management for his services. In September 2010, Edhi was also awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Bedfordshire.[8] In 1989, Edhi received the Nishan-e-Imtiaz from the Government of Pakistan.[9] On 1 January 2014, Edhi was voted 2013 Person of the Year by the readers of The Express Tribune.[10] He was recommended for a Nobel Peace prize by the Prime Minister of Pakistan with more than 30,000 signing a petition by Ziauddin Yousafzai, the father of Malala Yousafzai for his nomination.[11]

Travel issues

In the early 1980s he was arrested by Israeli troops while entering Lebanon. In 2006, he was detained in Toronto, Canada, for 16 hours. In January 2008, US immigration officials interrogated Edhi at the John F. Kennedy Airport in New York for over eight hours, and seized his passport and other documents. When asked about the frequent detention Edhi said "The only explanation I can think of is my beard and my dress."[12]

Personal life and death

Edhi was married in 1965 to Bilquis, a nurse who worked at the Edhi dispensary.[13] The couple had four children, two daughters and two sons. Bilquis runs the free maternity home at the headquarters in Karachi and organizes the adoption of illegitimate and abandoned babies. To his death Edhi remained a simple and humble man. He owned two pairs of clothes, never took a salary from his organisation and lived in a small two bedroom apartment over his clinic in Karachi.

On 25 June 2013, Edhi's kidneys failed and it was announced that he would be on dialysis for the rest of his life, unless he found a kidney donor.[14] Edhi died on 8 July 2016 at the age of 88 due to kidney failure. He was placed on a ventilator for the last six hours of his life. He will be buried in Edhi Village. His last wishes included the request that his organs were to be donated but due to his ill health, only his corneas were suitable.[15]

Honors and awards

International awards

National awards

References

  1. ^ a b "Pakistan's legendary 'Angel of Mercy' Abdul Edhi dies at age 88". Toronto Star. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
  2. ^ "The Prime Minister Declared A Day Of National Mourning". Geo News. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
  3. ^ "Revered humanitarian Abdul Sattar Edhi passes away". ARY News. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
  4. ^ "The day I met Abdul Sattar Edhi, a living saint". The Daily Telegraph. 10 April 2011. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  5. ^ Ala, Mustard; T.A.N.S. (12 November 2006). "Honorary Doctorate Degree by IBA awarded to Abdul Sattar Edhi". DAWN. Retrieved 24 March 2016.. Archived 2009-01-04 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 24 March 2016
  6. ^ 'From a humanitarian to a nation'. Published 12 July 2004. Retrieved 24 March 2016
  7. ^ "Pakistan's saviour of the desperate". BBC News. 15 March 2001. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  8. ^ [1]. DAWN. Published 15 June 2012. Retrieved 24 March 2016
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Awards". Edhi Foundation. 8 August 2010. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  10. ^ Tribune person of the year 2013: Your vote, our hero, The Express Tribune, published 1 Jan 2014. Retrieved 24 March 2016
  11. ^ "Campaign for Abdul Sattar Edhi to receive Nobel Peace Prize by Malala's dad". Birmingham Mail. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  12. ^ Khan, M Ilyas (29 January 2008). "Pakistan aid worker stuck in US". BBC News. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  13. ^ Richard Covington (2 September 2008). "What One Person Can Do". In David Elliot Cohen (ed.). What Matters: The World's Preeminent Photojournalists and Thinkers Depict Essential Issues of Our Time. Sterling Publishing. pp. 309–323. ISBN 978-1402758348.
  14. ^ [2]. The Express Tribune. Published 25 June 2013. Retrieved 24 March 2016
  15. ^ "Abdul Sattar Edhi passes away". The Express Tribune. 8 July 2016. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
  16. ^ "Citation for Abdul Sattar Edhi and Bilqis Bano Edhi". Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation. 31 August 1986. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  17. ^ "UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize – Laureates". UNESCO. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  18. ^ "UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence (2009)" (PDF). UNESCO. 2009. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  19. ^ "Awards". The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
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