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Bilquis Bano Edhi |
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Bilquis Edhi
Head
Bilquis Edhi Foundation
Hilal-e-Imtiaz
It is true, as the
saying goes: “There is a woman behind every man”. Bilquis
Edhi is a woman of substance, for sure; and she has come a
long way with Edhi for a cause that is simply great.
Bilquis Bano Edhi, wife of Abdul Sattar Edhi, is a
humanitarian, a social worker and one of the most active
philanthropists in Pakistan. She was born on August 14, 1947
in Karachi. She heads the Bilquis Edhi Foundation, holds the
honor of being awarded the prestigious ‘Hilal-e-Imtiaz’, and
with her husband received the ‘1986 Ramon Magsaysay Award
for Public Service’. She is also the recipient of the ‘Lenin
Peace Prize’. Her charity runs many services in Pakistan
including a hospital and emergency service in Karachi.
Bilquis Edhi – the young lass who was not very good at
studies, joined the nurses training course at the Edhi
Nurses Training Centre when she was in the 8th grade. Later
Abdul Sattar Edhi proposed to her and they got married in
April 1966. Since then, she has been working with the Edhi
Foundation – A Foundation which was started by Abdul Sattar
Edhi with the mission to provide aid to Pakistan's poor and
down-trodden has become Pakistan's major relief organization
under the leadership of the husband and wife - team of Abdul
Sattar and Bilquis Edhi. Today, in addition to services
provided in Pakistan, Edhi foundation is a major resource
for assisting victims of disaster internationally.
Abdul Sattar Edhi’s possessions at the time of his marriage
were a broken old car and a small dispensary. There was a
maternity home on the first floor with 6-7 beds, a small
room – 6’ X 6’ on the ground floor which served as an office
and a similar room on the first floor. There wasn’t much
else but even in those days when the newly wed couple had
very limited resources, people used to leave their kids with
them and Bilquis Edhi used to look after them.
Bilquis Edhi vividly remembers her first major experience at
Edhi Foundation, when during the war; the bombings resulted
in a number of brutally mutilated bodies which she had to
wash for burial. At times only an arm, leg or head was
recovered. She, along with about 60-70 workers including
voluntary workers, collected and then washed these bodies.
Her current responsibilities include looking after the
ladies section, giving away children for adoption – mostly
looking after women-specific and children related sections
throughout Pakistan. Her two daughters also work closely
with me. She regularly visits Edhi Homes all over Pakistan
to monitor their activities and give suggestions and
recommendations on how she feels the work should be done.
She is also instrumental in making Edhi Homes ‘Centers of
Excellence’ – in the true sense of the word.
With regard to child adoption, she makes sure the criteria
are fulfilled to approve / disapprove of couples who want to
adopt a child. Couples who want to adopt a child are
interviewed by Bilquis Edhi. Her criteria for adoption are
that even after 10-12 years of marriage the couple is still
childless, prospective father’s salary should be reasonable,
prospective father should not have alcohol or drug-related
problems, prospective mother’s age should be younger than 50
and the couple should own a house. Her foundation doesn’t
give children to couples who keep changing their house –
keep moving from one place to another. Kids who are
physically or mentally disabled are cared for by Edhi
Foundation. They have a separate section for them where they
clean them, feed them, play with them etc. The kids remain
with them for the rest of their lives. Aside from the
disabled children, the other children who don’t get adopted
do not pose any problem, whatsoever. Edhi Foundation has
over 4,000 applications in hand. They don’t have enough kids
to give to people. So they are careful in selecting
prospective parents. They have a ‘shariat-nama’ in place
which they make the parents sign where it is explicitly
mentioned that in case of separation between the parents,
the Centre will reclaim the child or let the child stay with
the mother.
Edhi Foundation keeps expanding by adding new welfare
services every now and then. Bilquis Edhi sees Pakistan's
future as bright, provided if people feel the pain and work
for a better future. When she goes abroad with Edhi, they
come back with lots of ideas. The couple dreams of the day
when welfare facilities in Pakistan would be comparable to
those we find abroad. She feels that this seems to be a
distant dream. She said: “We don’t even have clean drinking
water here. Load shedding is an ongoing problem. After the
recent oil spill [in Karachi] when the oil tanker broke in
half, people were saying that our country had gone back 20
years in time. As far as I am concerned in the last 55 years
we have not moved forward. We are still where we were 55
years ago.”
Abdul Sattar Edhi and Bilquis Edhi, both think of things for
the future. She told us that when Edhi comes up with an idea
he writes it down. In 1976, the couple was involved in an
accident which took place near a village with no airport or
landing strip nearby. Around that time a building collapsed
in Karachi - Bismillah Building. At that time Zulfiqar Ali
Bhutto was in power. Noticing Edhi’s absence from the scene
of the disaster he inquired as to his whereabouts upon which
he was told of the situation. Bhutto immediately dispatched
a small airplane to pick them up. Edhi was admitted to the
Civil Hospital in Karachi where shortly after gaining
consciousness; he remarked that he would also like to buy a
plane. Bilquis Edhi asked how he will be able to afford a
plane as his current situation was such that if he put his
hand in the pocket for some loose change, thread used to
come out instead. However, Edhi never got disheartened and
pulled along with conviction and dedication. By the Grace of
Allah, they now have a plane, helicopters everything.
Bilquis Edhi is honored to be the life-partner of a person
whose love for humanity is ‘larger than life’. She regards
him as a good man - Albeit a little short tempered but good
at heart. The couple has still not built their own house
yet. Bilquis Edhi fondly remembered her first 4-5 years
after marriage when she used to live on the roof. Later,
after the birth of her four kids, she moved to her mother’s
house. Her mother looked after the kids. On a daily basis
she used to shuffle between her house and the Edhi Centre.
After the kids grew up and got married, Bilquis Edhi’s
mother passed away. The couple spends their days and nights
at the Edhi Centre. In their 36-37 years of married life,
there may have been at least 36 occasions when they never
even came home at night. Even now when their children want
to see him, they bring lunch from their home and come and
eat with them.
They seldom take time out from their work but they have
spent some good time together on the job. In the last 34-35
years there have been many occasions when they had to drop
off patients and deceased people to far off villages. After
dropping them off, on the way back they used to stop over in
villages and rural areas where they have been treated with
lassi, chicken in gravy among other delicacies and looked
after extremely well by the people of those areas. They also
sat on charpoys with their feet in the water – fresh cold
water streams abound in these areas. They have had some good
times together. On these trips they used to feel like they
were extremely rich people with cars of their own. Others
who lived in those areas didn’t have any cars so they used
to request them to take them along whenever they went on
such trips.
Faisal, Kubra, Zeenat and Almas – the Edhis have an educated
progeny, bright young people. After Bilquis and Abdul Sattar,
they will look after the Edhi Foundation and carry the torch
forward.
Bilquis Edhi has spent her life for a noble cause and she
continues to do so. She is lucky as a human-being and even
luckier as a woman for she got a helping hand in the form of
her husband. Abdul Sattar and Bilquis complement each other
– in the very true sense of the word. |
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