Biography

Pakistan/India

Abdul Sattar Edhi

2000 Balzan Prize for Humanity, Peace and Fraternity among Peoples

In recognition of his life-long unselfish work for the very poorest and for peace; for his untiring efforts finding those who need care and taking care of those that nobody else cares for.

ABDUL SATTAR EDHI was born in 1928 († 2016) in India, in Bantva, a small village near Joona Gurh, in Gujarat State.

In 1947, after partition of the former British colony into two separate independent states, India and Pakistan, Abdul Sattar Edhi’s family, who were Muslims, moved to Pakistan.

In 1974 Abdul Sattar Edhi establishes the Edhi Foundation which over the years has become the largest and best organized social welfare system in Pakistan and in the Third World.

The Edhi Foundation operates on the basis of local volunteers and through private donations, in a spirit of tolerance and solidarity that goes beyond racial and religious barriers.
With his wife Bilquis Abdul Sattar Edhi is still working in Karachi where his organisation helps the poorest and the most destitute, not only in Pakistan but also in other Third World countries.

(October 2000)