WEB DESK: The 93rd birthday of the prominent philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi Being observed today.
Abdul Sattar Edhi founded the world’s largest volunteer ambulance network in Pakistan, the Edhi Foundation. Unlike wealthy individuals that fund charities in their names, Edhi dedicated his life to the poor from the age of 20, when he himself was penniless in Karachi.
The reach of Edhi’s foundation grew internationally and in 2005 the organization raised $100,000 in aid relief for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Edhi was born before partition in Bantva, Gujarat, India on February 28, 1928. He Died two years back in Karachi of renal failure.
He was offered treatment abroad but insisted on being treated in a government hospital at home. The Edhi Foundation’s slogan is: “Live and help live”.Today would have been his 90th birthday. Last year in his honour, Google changed its logo in the United States; Iceland; Portugal; Australia; New Zealand; Japan; Estonia; the UK, Denmark; Ireland and Pakistan to a doodle, or illustration, of Edhi.
“In celebration of Abdul Sattar Edhi, let’s all lend a hand to someone in need today,” it said. With more than 1,800 ambulances stationed across Pakistan, the Edhi Foundation is Pakistan’s largest welfare organization.
In 1997, the foundation entered the GuinnessWorld Records as the “largest volunteer ambulance organization”.If you call 115 in the South Asian nation, the Edhi Foundation will answer.