Kaarimo

Abdul Sattar Edhi's mental hospitals

Abdul Sattar Edhi was sometimes referred to as the Mother Teresa of Karachi, but the enormity of his achievement is hard to grasp. He and his wife have transformed the humanitarian landscape of Pakistan. In a country crippled by corruption he created a self-help organization. An organization that helps hundreds every day from donations from the general public. He has gained no personal benefit from it other than the satisfaction of his work. Karachi.

The mental hospitals host mentally ill people, as well as ex-drug addicts and drug dealers. The conditions of life, despite Edhi’s efforts are harsh, and I even came across women chained to the walls. A guard told me that they lacked of staff, and that there is one nurse for about a hundred patients.

One of the women, an Afghan refugee who was displaced during the Taliban regime, chained to a wall and dressed as a man, with a painted mustache, singing the Afghan national anthem out loud, had clearly lost her mind after traumatic shocks during the war.

Abdul Sattar Edhi