Saturday, April 2, 2011
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Honors received
International awards
* 1986 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service
* 1988 Lenin Peace Prize
* 1992 Paul Harris Fellow Rotary International Foundation
* In 2000, Edhi was awarded the International Balzan Prize for Humanity, Peace and Brotherhood.
* On 26 March 2005, Edhi was presented with the Life Time Achievement Award by the World Memon Organization (WMO).
* On 11 November 2006, Edhi was presented with an Honorary Doctorate Degree by the Institute of Business Administration Karachi (IBA).[6]
* In 2008, listed in a poll by the The Financial Daily as a favourite personality.[citation needed]
* In November 2009, Madanjeet Singh 2009 Prize for tolerance & non-violence.
National awards
* Nishan-e-Imtiaz from Government of Pakistan 1989.
* Human Rights Award by Pakistan Human Rights Society.
* Khidmat Award by Pakistan Academy of Medical Sciences.
* Shield of Honour by Pakistan Army (E & C).
* Silver Jubilee Shield by College of Physicians and Surgeons, Pakistan.(1962-1987)
* Recognition of meritorious services to oppressed humanity during the eighties (1989) by Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Government of Pakistan. 45 Years Of Selfless Service.
* The Social Worker of South Asia - 1989 by Government of Sindh
* Pakistan Civic Award 1992 - by Pakistan Civic Society.
* 1986 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service
* 1988 Lenin Peace Prize
* 1992 Paul Harris Fellow Rotary International Foundation
* In 2000, Edhi was awarded the International Balzan Prize for Humanity, Peace and Brotherhood.
* On 26 March 2005, Edhi was presented with the Life Time Achievement Award by the World Memon Organization (WMO).
* On 11 November 2006, Edhi was presented with an Honorary Doctorate Degree by the Institute of Business Administration Karachi (IBA).[6]
* In 2008, listed in a poll by the The Financial Daily as a favourite personality.[citation needed]
* In November 2009, Madanjeet Singh 2009 Prize for tolerance & non-violence.
National awards
* Nishan-e-Imtiaz from Government of Pakistan 1989.
* Human Rights Award by Pakistan Human Rights Society.
* Khidmat Award by Pakistan Academy of Medical Sciences.
* Shield of Honour by Pakistan Army (E & C).
* Silver Jubilee Shield by College of Physicians and Surgeons, Pakistan.(1962-1987)
* Recognition of meritorious services to oppressed humanity during the eighties (1989) by Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Government of Pakistan. 45 Years Of Selfless Service.
* The Social Worker of South Asia - 1989 by Government of Sindh
* Pakistan Civic Award 1992 - by Pakistan Civic Society.
'I Feel Happy God Made Me Different'
Adbul Edhi, bearded and slight, calls himself a "pragmatic humanist." He also has been called a communist for his belief that the rich enslave the poor. In fact, Edhi says, poverty is spreading terrorism.
"Almost all of our leaders are involved in looting and plundering, and the Taliban are a reaction to that," he says.
Bilquis Edhi says of her husband, "Everyone said I was crazy to marry him. Friends joked that while they'd go on picnics, he'd take me to graveyards."
But the man who built Pakistan's biggest social service network with no formal education says he does feel a bit crazy, and he revels in it.
"I feel happy. There's so much craftiness and cunning and lying in the world. I feel happy that God made me different from the others. I helped the most oppressed," he says.
Bilquis Edhi says three or four more people like her husband could change the destiny of Pakistan.
"Almost all of our leaders are involved in looting and plundering, and the Taliban are a reaction to that," he says.
Bilquis Edhi says of her husband, "Everyone said I was crazy to marry him. Friends joked that while they'd go on picnics, he'd take me to graveyards."
But the man who built Pakistan's biggest social service network with no formal education says he does feel a bit crazy, and he revels in it.
"I feel happy. There's so much craftiness and cunning and lying in the world. I feel happy that God made me different from the others. I helped the most oppressed," he says.
Bilquis Edhi says three or four more people like her husband could change the destiny of Pakistan.
The babies are brought to the Edhi morgue, where the acrid smell of embalming fills the air. Employees who are paid a small stipend load a corpse into an ambulance to be taken to the cemetery. It is a long slender body prepared for burial. It bears a number, but it bears no name. The Edhi Foundation buries bodies that cannot be identified.
The makeshift hearse snakes its way to the Edhi Foundation's cemetery on the outskirts of the city. Mohammad Saleem has been a driver for the Edhi ambulance service for 24 years. The service now operates throughout the country. Saleem recalls his first assignment.
"Mr. Edhi sent us to collect a dead body, and the stink was so unbearable I couldn't stand it. We all ran," Saleem says. "We came back with Mr. Edhi, who showed us how to pick up a dead body and transport it."
"We work long hours," Saleem adds, "but we're at ease. We have a kind of spiritual peace because somehow we're serving humanity."
The two young men being laid to rest this day will be interred in a place as bleak as their lives likely were. The van bearing their bodies bumps along the potholed unpaved streets. Little boys rush to sneak a peak through the window, while babies sit like Buddhas in the endless debris.
Gravediggers cover the corpses that have been slipped into the earth of this forlorn field with nothing but a white sheet. In Karachi, death comes without pity.
Women's Suffering Starts At Birth
The Edhi Foundation runs two maternity wards in Karachi. Since 1948, 1 million children have been delivered in Edhi facilities — virtually for free, according to Edhi.
His wife, Bilquis, runs one of the maternity wards in Karachi. She has a sunny disposition that contrasts with the suffering there. Just 40 minutes after delivery, one mother, grimacing in pain, gets up to leave.
"In the past, they would stay for three days," Bilquis Edhi says. "But now, even if they have stitches, the women don't linger."
The mother says this was her third child; Bilquis Edhi suspects it is her sixth.
"Islam is driving this," she says. Conservative clerics call family planning haram, or forbidden. As a result, she says, "Women keep producing babies, and these women are dying in the process."
A bright pink veil is placed carelessly across Bilquis Edhi's head. At 62, her skin still glows. Despite bypass surgery, she continues a marathon schedule devoted to helping impoverished women.
In this conservative society, women's problems start from birth, she says.
"When a baby girl is born here, the man storms out cursing his wife. But whenever there is a male born, the men celebrate and offer us tea," she says.
"Most of the babies who are left in the cradle at our doorstep are girls," she adds. "Sometimes the babies are tossed in garbage heaps, gagged and wrapped in plastic bags. In one week, we can get as many as 11 dead babies."
His wife, Bilquis, runs one of the maternity wards in Karachi. She has a sunny disposition that contrasts with the suffering there. Just 40 minutes after delivery, one mother, grimacing in pain, gets up to leave.
"In the past, they would stay for three days," Bilquis Edhi says. "But now, even if they have stitches, the women don't linger."
The mother says this was her third child; Bilquis Edhi suspects it is her sixth.
"Islam is driving this," she says. Conservative clerics call family planning haram, or forbidden. As a result, she says, "Women keep producing babies, and these women are dying in the process."
A bright pink veil is placed carelessly across Bilquis Edhi's head. At 62, her skin still glows. Despite bypass surgery, she continues a marathon schedule devoted to helping impoverished women.
In this conservative society, women's problems start from birth, she says.
"When a baby girl is born here, the man storms out cursing his wife. But whenever there is a male born, the men celebrate and offer us tea," she says.
"Most of the babies who are left in the cradle at our doorstep are girls," she adds. "Sometimes the babies are tossed in garbage heaps, gagged and wrapped in plastic bags. In one week, we can get as many as 11 dead babies."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)