Written by: Muhammad Asif Nawaz
Posted on: April 25, 2022 | 
| 中文
Bilquis Edhi with her husband Abdul Sattar Edhi
As Bilquis Bano Edhi passed away this Friday at the age of 74, condolences poured in from all over. Poignant, personal stories of people who had been abandoned by their parents and had been nurtured by Bilquis Edhi appeared on social media platforms. People who were now accomplished individuals, grieved by the passing of the person who was responsible for their rescue and nurturing. She and her husband, the great Abdul Sattar Edhi, had saved about 16000 unwanted babies, mostly girls, left in the 300 cradles set up by their foundation in various cities of the country. For all of these children, Bilquis was a mother, and that probably is what Bilquis would be most fondly remembered for. And any mention of Bilquis seems incomplete without that of her husband, the ray of hope for many. Abdul Sattar Edhi, and his struggle to set up the Edhi Foundation and converting it into what it is now.
Bilquis Edhi
Edhi was born in 1928 near Junagarh. He became familiar with suffering early in his life, as his mother was paralyzed and he had to look after her. This laid the foundation of how Edhi evolved as an exceptional philanthropist. The family migrated to Pakistan in 1947, and after experimenting with different career paths, Edhi opened a welfare trust in his own name in 1951, largely based on donations. And then there was no looking back: services kept on being added to the foundation and the donations came pouring in. Throughout his life, Edhi personally engaged with all the services his foundation provided, whether it was washing the corpses or driving his ambulance around the city of Karachi. The Edhi Homes his foundation set up, and where he personally spent his time, became the only welcoming place for many homeless in this country. Edhi was always reluctant to be in the public eye, and avoided gatherings because he regarded them as a waste of time. Accordingly, the people gave him many titles: messiah, nana and angel among others.
Rabia Bano, a child of the Edhi Orphanage who now works at Nike in the USA, with Bilquis Edhi and her adoptive parents.
Edhi married Bilquis in 1966, and they both complemented each other. The girl from Gujarat, who would later become the Co-Chair of Edhi Foundation, enrolled in the nurses training course at the Edhi Nurses Training Center in the 8th grade. She was working for the Edhi organization in Karachi, which later led to their nuptials. Edhi did not own much in terms of material possessions when they got married, but the couple took on the task of looking after unwanted children at the very start of their marriage. “Everyone said I was crazy to marry him," Bilquis Edhi once said in an interview. "Friends joked that while they'd go on picnics, he'd take me to graveyards.” Not only was their marriage a great success, but this partnership helped propel their organization to greater heights. Despite their international fame and accolades, the couple lived in extreme simplicity, dwelling in a modest apartment that also doubled as their organization’s office, for they never built a house of their own.
Bilquis Edhi with Abdus Sattar Edhi (right) and Bilquis with her kids (left)
Today, the Edhi Foundation is one of the largest charity organizations in Pakistan, which also holds the Guinness World Record for the largest volunteer ambulance organization in the world. It is a pioneer of social organizations in Pakistan, an example for other NGOs. It inspires confidence, given the reputation of its leadership, transparency in its functioning, the numerous services they offer, and the quality of their delivery. The Edhi foundation has over 5,000 ambulances stationed in various cities. Their emergency response service system also includes 2 aircrafts and one helicopter, besides 28 rescue boats. One of the main ventures of Edhi foundation is the Jhoola (cradle) project, which aims to help the abandoned children live a normal life. Edhi Foundation’s Destitute Homes (Apna Ghar scheme) are home for mentally ill, destitute, orphans and run aways, where specialists deal with the problems faced by the 6,000 residents in their 13 homes. The Organization aims to build five hundred Edhi Centers across the country to cater for the increasing demand of its services. In the educational sector, they provide primary, elementary and secondary school education free of cost up to the matriculation level.
An illustration depicting the Edhis and their services
Edhi Foundation offers its services not only in Pakistan, but across the globe. They made sure that the deaf-mute Indian girl Geeta, who had strayed into Pakistan accidentally, was returned home safely. It was quick to pick American journalist Daniel Pearl’s body when he was killed in Karachi in 2002. Edhi Foundation donated 2,00,000 USD to the Iranian government to combat the Covid epidemic in 2020. Edhi Foundation has been helping the Afghan refugees since the 1980s, and also collected donations for the 2005 Kashmir earthquake victims. It also offered its volunteers and 50 ambulances to the Indian government to combat Covid, as the country was facing shortage of Oxygen in 2021. Due to their humanitarian work, the Edhis are acclaimed internationally. The couple is the recipient of numerous awards, more notably the Hilal-e-Imtiaz, Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service of Philippine, the Lenin Peace Prize of Russia, the Shield of Honour, Khidmat Award and various other titles.
Bilquis and Abdul Sattar Edhi with the strayed deaf-mute Indian girl, Geeta
Edhi and Bilquis always stayed away from politics and controversies, the Foundation staunchly continued to be non-communal, non-profit and non-governmental. They would not accept donations that came with strings attached, but the donations came pouring in because of their reputation. They just wanted to see the welfare facilities in Pakistan made comparable to those abroad, an aim they both knew was difficult to achieve, but worked tirelessly for it. The baby cradles put up by the Foundation were criticized by some, claiming that they promote out-of-wedlock births. The couple’s religiosity was often questioned. "They call him an infidel, saying that he does not say his prayers," Bilquis said of her husband's critics in 2015. "What we are doing should be done by the government and should be appreciated, but instead accusations are made against us.” When Bilquis discovered that the girl who had mistakenly crossed the Pakistan-India border was a Hindu, she built a temple for her. The services the couple provided were not hampered by issues of religion, race and ethnicity. Edhi sahab braved his critics with a simple statement: "My religion is humanitarianism, which is the basis of every religion in the world."
Tehmina Durrani with Bilquis Edhi
The Mother Teresa of Pakistan breathed her last in a hospital in Karachi this Friday (April 15), her predicament highlighted a day before on twitter by Tehima Durrani, author of Abdul Sattar Edhi’s autobiography, “A Mirror to the Blind”. Born in 1947, Bilquis survived her husband by six years. What survives both of them is the Edhi Foundation, which provides 24 hours emergency services across Pakistan and internationally. The branches of Edhi International Foundation are now providing regular services in New York, Dhaka, Tokyo, Sydney, London and Dubai, and are working for establishing branches in Afghanistan, India, Sri Lanka, Yemen and Russia. Some of its services include hospitals and medical care, drug rehabilitation facilities, international relief efforts, shelter homes, education, healthcare, childcare services and legal aid. If life is about building a legacy, there can be no greater legacy than the one built by the Edhis. They believed in Huquq-ul-Ibaad or serving humanity. Pakistan today is a poorer place without them, as is the world.
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