I often have this argument with one of my closest friends, regarding all the bizarre happenings in Pakistan and Muslim world in general. Patriotic as I may be; at the back of my mind, it has always been registered that there is no hope unless a man of revolution takes over the country. Maybe the latter is true, but I have always had the perspective that heroes in our country stopped existing a few decades back. Maybe, even the real heroes stopped existing after Jinnah himself. I came across an autobiography of a real hero today and it had me thinking for most of the day; it is true we don’t realize what we have, till we have lost it. We never read about these heroes in our textbooks, instead I do remember having to read about other dictators irrelevant to the country’s betterment in our ‘Social Studies’ textbooks. Yet we have all heard their names, because no matter how much evil there may be in this world, people never fail to take a moment when heartfelt things are done by these heroes on an everyday basis. It always overrules the evil. I want to make a difference – no, I cannot write a piece that’ll make the cover of The News tomorrow or something that Geo will pin to its headlines for the next whole month. I will only write a small something, which I know will make a small difference to Pakistan. Just a small, but at least it will. I will get to know two of the many heroes of Pakistan in this post and the next. He belonged to one of those many families who sacrificed all that they had to move to Pakistan. At the age of 19 he lost his mother to a long struggle to mental health and body paralysation for over 8 years. He had devoted himself all this time only and only to her needs; from cleaning, bathing to feeding and all those disabilities that came as she got worse. After her death, it made him think of all those millions and millions of people who are suffering in the country, like his mother but have nobody to look after them. And so set the man after a new mission. Poor as he was, he purchased a small shop when he opened a small dispensary with the help of a doctor who taught him basic medical care. Soon then, he was found at the streets of Karachi begging for money and charity. He collected all that he got and bought an old, broken van. His first ambulance. He went around the city giving basic aid to all those injured and in agony, he charged them nothing. He took out bodies from the river, the well, the shutters, the slums; took them to police for death certificates and buried them for they had nobody to even pay respect on their funerals. He helped those in pain and soon earned a reputation for being a selfless aid to the injured the unwell. This is when he founded, with a mere amount of five thousand rupees, the foundation that single handedly changed the face of welfare in Pakistan. Now known famously as the Edhi Trust and Foundation. Regarded as a guardian for the poor, he received numerous donations which allowed him to expand his services by opening maternity centre and nursing schools. It was not much later that he discovered many Pakistani women were killing their babies at birth, often because they were born outside marriage. At the stoning of a newborn baby outside a mosque upon the orders of a religious leader, a furious Mr Edhi responded ‘Who can declare an infant guilty when there is no concept of punishing the innocent?’. And that is the reason why a little cradle can be found outside every Edhi centre today. The one with a placard imploring: ‘Do not commit another sin: leave your baby in our care.’ The man has ever since received 35,000 babies, of which over a half have found new families to cherish them. These are only a few of the many incredible deeds done by the man. Today, Abdul Sattar Edhi’s foundation is listed as the world’s largest Ambulance help service and charity. It has rehabilitated over 50,000 orphans and has trained 40,000 nurses. It also runs over three hundred and thirty welfare centres in rural and urban Pakistan. The Foundation has worked extensively in international relief, including donating to victims of Hurrican Katrina, cyclone relief in Bangladesh and aid to tsunami-impacted regions. It has centres in the United States, Japan, UAE, Canada and the United Kingdom. Yet even today, Sir Edhi remains a simple and humble man as he ages 82. To this day, he owns two pairs of clothes, has never taken a salary from his organization and lives in a small two bedroom apartment over his clinic in Karachi. He is often seen supporting a Jinnah cap, so named because it was the gear of our very own Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. I don’t think many people will bother reading the blog at all – but still requesting, for the lot of you who have reached this part. Please help nominate the old man for Nobel Peace Prize by signing a petition nobelprizeforedhi/the-petition.php?err=ok . It is just a little something we can do for him, for he has worked for our welfare his entire life. Let us celebrate our heroes, before it is too late.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Jun 2013 06:52:10 +0000
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