‘Mother of orphans’ Bilquis Bano Edhi

Bilquis Bano Edhi  was a Pakistani nurse who helped save the lives of over 16,000 babies.She was one of the most active philanthropists in Pakistan. She was the co-chair of the Edhi Foundation, a charity organization that provided many services in Pakistan including a hospital and emergency service in Karachi. For her contributions, she was awarded the 1986 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service and the Mother Teresa Memorial International Award for Social Justice in 2015.For her service to the country, she was also referred to as The Mother of Pakistan.She was also a recipient of Hilal-i-Imtiaz, Pakistan’s second highest civilian honour.

Bilquis Bano Edhi wife of Abdul Sattar Edhi, is a professional nurse and one of the most active philanthropists in Pakistan. She has been nicknamed, The Mother of Pakistan. She was born in 1947 in Karachi. She heads the Bilquis Edhi Foundation, and with her husband received the 1986 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service. Her charity runs many services in Pakistan including a hospital and emergency service in Karachi. Together with her husband their charity has saved over 16,000 unwanted babies.

Bilquis Bano Edhi, wife of Abdul Sattar Edhi, is a humanitarian, a social worker and one of the most active philanthropists in Pakistan, 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.

Remembering Bilquis’s selfless work, a woman named Rabia Bibi Osman, paid a heartwarming tribute to Bilquis. She shared how she was abandoned in a baby carriage 28 years ago, and was given a name, identity and a new life. “You [Bilquis] found me, you named me after your mother Rabia Bano, you forged my identity and then you gave me a home,” wrote Rabia.

Calling her bari amma (elder mother), Rabia credited Bilquis for all the accomplishments in her life. Take a look: Mother of orphans: A heart-warming tribute to Bilquis Bano Edhi “Bilquis Edhi was a hero, she was a mother to so many orphans (like me) and a powerhouse for humanity,” she said, adding that “my name is Rabia Bibi Osman, and I will forever be a proud #Edhi baby.”

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 had breathed her last at Karachi’s Aga Khan Hospital on Friday evening. Exactly as old as Pakistan, her condition had taken a turn for the worse late on Thursday night after being stable for a bit. She was suffering from multiple ailments such as a heart condition (she had congestive heart failure) as well as a lung infection alongside other maladies such as diabetes and arthritis, according to her grandson Ahmed Edhi. Her funeral prayers were offered at New Memon Mosque on MA Jinnah Road. Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah was in attendance alongside members of his cabinet.

She was awarded various national and foreign awards, including the Hilal-i-Imtiaz, the Lenin Peace Prize, Mother Teresa Memorial International Award for Social Justice (2015), and the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service, which she received along with her husband in 1986. Last year, she was also named the ‘Person of the Decade’, along with UN rapporteur on human rights Prof. Yanghee Lee and US ethicist Stephen Soldz by an international organisation.