THE EDHI FOUNDATION - Serving Humanity is the Spirit of All Religions
The Edhi Foundation is an organization working for the social welfare of the people of Pakistan. It is a non-profit organization established by Abdul Sattar Edhi. He served as the head of this organization for 65 years. He passed away on 8 July, 2016. His wife, Bilquees Edhi is serving as the co-chair of this organization. She is a professional nurse and is known to be one of the most active philanthropist in Pakistan. Edhi Foundation has it’s headquarter in the city of Karachi. This great organization provides its social welfare services 24 hours not only in Pakistan but also internationally. Its primary focus is humanitarian aid and social welfare of everyone. The services of this organization include shelter for the needy, medical care, hospitals, services of drug rehabilitation and relief efforts both nationally and internationally. It mainly focuses on emergency services, provides home to the orphans, helps the handicapped people, and provides shelter to women, refugees, missing persons. It also works for blood donation, air ambulance, marine and coastal services. The organization is run entirely by donations and volunteer services. It provides services to the needy regardless of their race, religion, culture and social status. Edhi Foundation mainly works in Pakistan and rest of South Asia but it has worked in Middle East and Africa also. It has also provided financial aid to America and Europe when they suffered from natural disasters. This organization has international headquarters in United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada, Nepal, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Bangladesh and India. The centers of the organization are working throughout the country from small towns to big cities and rural areas. Edhi Foundation runs 8 hospitals in Karachi alone in which free medical care is provided to the patients along with other medical services such as diabetic centers, eye clinics, mobile aid, and surgical units. In addition to this, 15 operational shelter homes are also present for psychotics, missing persons and children. The organization held a Guinness World Record for being the ‘world’s largest volunteer-based ambulance organization.’ After his death, State Bank of Pakistan requested all the banks to donate as much as they can to the Edhi Foundation. The Edhi Foundation provides 24-hour emergency assistance across the entirety of Pakistan and internationally. The Foundation provides, among many other services, shelter for the destitute, hospitals and medical care, drug rehabilitation services, and national and international relief efforts. The management of this organization is based on a very centralised mechanism. There are a few lines of authority between the management and the staff. Its management structure includes three tiers. The first one is the Board of Directors. This consists of Edhi’s own family: his wife and his children. Under the Board of Directors come the zonal directors who are basically the directors of 11 zones in Pakistan. These zonal offices are operated in the cities of Islamabad, Karachi, Multan, Lahore and Quetta. The zonal offices are also responsible for managing the emergency and ambulance services. They used to report directly to Edhi. The responsibility has now fallen on Faisal Edhi who is also the acting chairman.
BACKGROUND AND HISTORY
Edhi Foundation was established in 1951 by Abdul Sattar Edhi. It is Pakistan’s largest charitable organization. Abdul Sattar Edhi is also known as the ‘Angel of Mercy’ due to his devotion towards this organization. He set up an excellent example of selflessness for whole Pakistan. This organization was started in Karachi as a small dispensary in a slum. He set up his first welfare center in 1957 and then established the Edhi Trust. A decade later it was converted into an ambulance by Edhi. Edhi took this great initiative in time when such philanthropic services were absent, that is why it gained huge popularity within few years of its startup. It provided great services of social welfare both privately and publicly in Karachi, especially in its low-income areas. Its increasing popularity and credibility proved to be extremely useful for the inflow of donations which then helped in its expansion. In the time period of 1980s and 1990s, the work of this great social welfare was changed from an ambulance to orphanages, old homes, homes for homeless. These services then rapidly expanded throughout the country.
Today there are a total of 335 Edhi centers throughout Pakistan working efficiently for the social welfare of people. Edhi hopes that Pakistan will become a welfare state through this organization as it has set up an excellent example for everyone. On 25 June, 2013, his kidneys failed, and doctors announced that he will be on dialysis until he finds a kidney donor. Three years later he died due to kidney failure at the age of 88. He was on the ventilator and his last wishes were to donate his organs to the needy persons. His health was so poor that his organs had failed and only his corneas could be donated. Abdul Sattar Edhi spent around 45 years of his life in the service of humanity. He has established a national welfare network, the Edhi Foundation (EF), which will always be remembered as the most wonderful effort by him. The working of its central office is very simple and amazing. It provides nation-wide services which are coordinated by Edhi personally with the help of telephones and a handful of efficient and active assistants and volunteers. It would have been not easy to manage such a mixture of operations and use of administrative communication channels with the limited staff. This has inevitably resulted in the centralization of policy decisions.
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