The extraordinary.

Some of you may know this, and others may not, but sharing stories of people like this matter. 

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It is the year of 1928 and in a small village called Bantva near the area of Gujrat, Abdul Sattar Edhi is born. No one could have predicted the incredible compassion this man would hold for humanity. When Abdul Sattar Edhi reached the age of eleven, his Mother became very ill, he devoted his time to taking care of her in every way and his educational development were impacted but it did allow him to see the world in a way others could not.

Edhi’s mother passed away when he reached the age of nineteen, and her loss caused him to think of the millions of people also suffering in their lives with no support and no one to care for them. He aspired to create welfare centers, hospitals and ambulances that could provide care for patients suffering from mental, physical illnesses or even people who have faced severe neglect.

Abdul Sattar Edhi did not have the resources to bring his vision to life but he hoped that he could do it, he kept faith in God and in 1947 him and his Family migrated to Pakistan. From being a peddler, Edhi later sold cloth in markets in Karachi. After a few years, Edhi and some of his co-workers became involved in charity work and his dream was revived to create ‘Edhi Trust’.

A public appeal for funds was responded well and 200,000 rupees were raised. Through Edhi’s strong spirit the foundation grew fast and well, a maternity home and ambulance services was created to help the over 10 million people of Karachi. Seeing the positivity Edhi was creating, donations carried on coming in and the vision kept taking shape to the point where people began calling Edhi ‘an angel of mercy’. He married a woman and they both dedicated their lives whole-heartedly to driving the ambulances and accepting and taking care of all people of all ages, races and social status. There are centres called ‘Edhi homes’ that accept any children left in front of the house and every one gets the love of Family they need.

Despite being well-known throughout Pakistan and other parts of the world, Edhi shuns media attention and lives a simple life with minimal possessions. Him and his wife live in an apartment adjacent to one of the centres and they receive no salary whilst maximising their time and energy to devote to humanitarian care. An inspiration in every way, Edhi had over 2,000 paid employees throughout his chain of humanitarian care methods and around 500 of those people are women. Edhi encourages people to be the best versions of themselves despite whatever life throws at them. He is in all ways of the word, extraordinary.