Known as “Pakistan’s Mother Teresa,” Abdul Sattar Edhi died last week at the age of 88. Mr. Edhi created a network of social services for his home country of Pakistan – from a fleet of ambulances with 24-hour emergency services to homeless shelters, orphanages, blood banks and homes for abandoned babies. Mr. Edhi was even known to personally transport and care for the injured, and wash the dead.
Recalling his early years in Karachi, he told NPR in 2009, “I saw people lying on the pavement. The flu had spread in Karachi, and there was no one to treat them. So I set up benches and got medical students to volunteer. I was penniless and begged for donations on the street. And people gave. I bought this 8-by-8 room to start my work.”
“There’s so much craftiness and cunning and lying in the world,” Mr. Edhi remarked in the interview. “I feel happy that God made me different from the others. I helped the most oppressed.”
