RIP Abdul Sattar Edhi

[rowan]

Tens of thousands attended the funeral of legendary philanthroist, social activist and humanitarian Abdul Sattar Edhi in Karachi today, the first state funeral held in Pakistan since 1988. Dubbed the 'male Mother Theresa,' Edhi was born in a village in British controlled India in 1928. During his late teens he was forced to care for his dying mother, and after her passing decided to devote his life to charity work. This he did, during more than six decades, establishing a foundation which became the largest welfare trust in Pakistan, and which has been credited with rescuing more than 20,000 abandoned infants, rehabilitating over 50,000 orphans and training over 40,000 nurses. The Edhi Foundation runs 330 centers throughout Pakistan, including shelters for women and children and clinics for the mentally handicapped. It also operates the world's largest ambulance fleet, with 1500 vehicles and a round-the-clock emergency service. The foundation has even assisted during major disasters abroad, including after Katrina in the US in 2005. Abdul Sattar Edhi won numerous international awards and was unsuccessfully nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, backed by a 30,000-strong petition organized by the father of Malala Yousafzai. Nonetheless, he lived a modest lifestyle, and neither did he receive universal acceptance, once being arrested by Israeli soldiers while in Lebanon, on another occasion being interrogated for 8 hours while visiting the US. Abdul Sattar Edhi died on Friday at the age of 88. RIP

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/07/t ... 21613.html