A nice series of articles on well known Pakistani women by the NEws on Sunday. Check the link for the rest..
Bilquis Edhi
Begum Bilquis Edhi pursues a simple goal in life: To help people who cannot help themselves. Hand in hand with her husband, Adbul Sattar Edhi, she runs the country’s largest charitable organisation – Edhi Foundation.
She was born in Bantva, a village in the Kathiawar Peninsular, on August 14, 1946. “I was made for Pakistan,” she adds proudly. Bilquis’ father Usman, who ran a bicycle repair shop, died when she was only ten. Her mother Rabia Bai took up teaching in a private school after the death of her husband, but switched profession to become a mid-wife after eight years. While mother was at work, young Bilquis took care of two younger brothers at home.
Was it the responsibility at home or simply lack of interest in academic achievements that kept her distracted from studies? She failed the matriculation examination that she sat for at the Urdu medium school, Ronaq-e-Islam, in Karachi. Thereafter she embarked on a much more fulfilling journey in life; as a volunteer at the Edhi Trust when she was only 18. “The 1965 war was on. Dead bodies with amputated legs or arms would be brought in dozens,” she pauses and then reflects: “Those were difficult days. In fact, it was the experience of the war that chalked out the future course of my like.”
In 1966, a bearded man in a khaki kurta proposed for marriage. “I accepted Maulana Sahib’s proposal almost immediately. Even though he had proposed to seven or eight women before me and each had turned him down,” she says in a very Kachi accent. In the next four years, four children – two girls and two boys – were added to the Edhi household. “Naturally, I was immature and carefree. My mother brought up our children.” After so many years, she has no regrets; together with her husband she has sailed through the times with single-minded determination, with a mission to serve humanity. “Our work is our life, take it away and we will not be able to live.”
Abdul Sattar Edhi has extended unwavering support to his spouse. With only the financial matters of the Foundation under him, the rest of the charitable work is monitored by Begum Bilquis. Today, she runs a network of 750 ambulances with the help of her youngest son. “My son Faisal is in the process of acquiring 300 more ambulances to further strengthen the service. It is due to his hard work that the petrol bill that till last year amounted to Rs. 20 million has been reduced to Rs. 8 million.”
Foundation’s women specific departments fall under her; that include 17 Edhi homes providing shelter to 6500 destitute, mentally retarded and homeless women and about 10 nursing homes. At these centres every effort is made to convince women that they can take responsibility for their own lives and must prepare for the future. Hence women are trained in different skills to be economically independent. “Women must be skilled to earn a livelihood,” she believes.
So far she has handed over 15,000 newborn babies to needy parents. “One child a week is left at the gate of an Edhi centre. I personally interview the needy parents, and give preference to those who have lost a child or those who can offer a good standard of living to the adopted child.”
She is not an ordinary woman. She is special, simple and warm. Her personality combined with the contribution in the welfare work of the Foundation has earned her acclaim at home and abroad. The Ramakrishan Jeidayal Harmony award that she received in New Delhi on December 10, 2003 is the latest in the long list of international honours that have been bestowed on her in the four decades of humanitarian service. In New Delhi she commented: “South Asia must strive for peace because war only brings destruction… It is high time India and Pakistan heal their wounds for a better future of the next generation otherwise they will not forgive us.”
–Alefia T. Hussain