For our final episode of this season, we have an extremely special interview with Mr. Faisal Edhi and Ms. Bllquis Edhi of the Edhi Foundation.
Of course, this is one organization that needs no introduction, founded by Pakistan’s most beloved humanitarianist, social entrepreneur, and role model, Mr. Abdul Sattar Edhi, who dedicated his entire 88 year life towards the development of this country.
He started with just two paisas that his mother would give him each day, and from this small beginning, eventually opened a 24-hour dispensary in Mithadar, Karachi, where he would sleep on the bench in order to serve patients. Eventually he saved enough to purchase an ambulance, one of only 2 or 3 in the entire province, and drove through out all of Sindh responding to emergency calls.
From there, he kept working and over 60+ years developed the largest NGO in Pakistan, with nearly 2,000 ambulances, 350 fully serviced health centers, over 3,000 employees, nearly 50,000 midwives or nurses trained, and becoming a compass to hundreds of millions just through the way he lived his life.
And although he passed away in the holy month of Ramadan in 2016, his vision and work lives on, specifically through the leadership of his son Mr. Faisal Edhi, and his wife and partner, Ms. Bilquise Edhi.
Ms. Bilquise, of course, has been supporting him since the very early days, not only working alongside of him day in and day out, but also bringing a light in a world that Edhi sb said was often full of darkness.
And together they raised their family, including Mr. Faisal Edhi, who learned alongside Edhi sb as a child, worked along side him after finishing his higher studies, and with Ms. Bilquise has helped succeed the Foundation after Edhi sb’s passing.
Although it’s a bit long longer than usual, we wanted to share as much richness from this conversation as possible.
Together, Ms. Bilquise and Mr. Faisal Edhi share Edhi sb’s belief that the only way to change society is through our work, they share his hope that bad things happen quickly but eventually fade away while change comes slowly but lasts for a long time, and they share his conviction that we each have a role and responsibility to play in bringing about the long lasting change that the world so desperately needs.
*Building Pakistan is brought to you by the team at Amal Academy (amalacademy.org), with support from +Acumen (plusacumen.org) as our distribution partner. Illustrations and production editing are by Awais Farooq (Amal Academy). Music is provided by Danny Roberts (dannyroberts.com), Lydia Cole and Ryan Baxley.
All content for Building Pakistan with Benje Williams is the property of Amal Academy and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
For our final episode of this season, we have an extremely special interview with Mr. Faisal Edhi and Ms. Bllquis Edhi of the Edhi Foundation.
Of course, this is one organization that needs no introduction, founded by Pakistan’s most beloved humanitarianist, social entrepreneur, and role model, Mr. Abdul Sattar Edhi, who dedicated his entire 88 year life towards the development of this country.
He started with just two paisas that his mother would give him each day, and from this small beginning, eventually opened a 24-hour dispensary in Mithadar, Karachi, where he would sleep on the bench in order to serve patients. Eventually he saved enough to purchase an ambulance, one of only 2 or 3 in the entire province, and drove through out all of Sindh responding to emergency calls.
From there, he kept working and over 60+ years developed the largest NGO in Pakistan, with nearly 2,000 ambulances, 350 fully serviced health centers, over 3,000 employees, nearly 50,000 midwives or nurses trained, and becoming a compass to hundreds of millions just through the way he lived his life.
And although he passed away in the holy month of Ramadan in 2016, his vision and work lives on, specifically through the leadership of his son Mr. Faisal Edhi, and his wife and partner, Ms. Bilquise Edhi.
Ms. Bilquise, of course, has been supporting him since the very early days, not only working alongside of him day in and day out, but also bringing a light in a world that Edhi sb said was often full of darkness.
And together they raised their family, including Mr. Faisal Edhi, who learned alongside Edhi sb as a child, worked along side him after finishing his higher studies, and with Ms. Bilquise has helped succeed the Foundation after Edhi sb’s passing.
Although it’s a bit long longer than usual, we wanted to share as much richness from this conversation as possible.
Together, Ms. Bilquise and Mr. Faisal Edhi share Edhi sb’s belief that the only way to change society is through our work, they share his hope that bad things happen quickly but eventually fade away while change comes slowly but lasts for a long time, and they share his conviction that we each have a role and responsibility to play in bringing about the long lasting change that the world so desperately needs.
*Building Pakistan is brought to you by the team at Amal Academy (amalacademy.org), with support from +Acumen (plusacumen.org) as our distribution partner. Illustrations and production editing are by Awais Farooq (Amal Academy). Music is provided by Danny Roberts (dannyroberts.com), Lydia Cole and Ryan Baxley.
E01 Building Pakistan with Dr. Amjad Saqib (Akhuwat, CEO/Founder)
Building Pakistan with Benje Williams
1 hour 1 second
8 years ago
E01 Building Pakistan with Dr. Amjad Saqib (Akhuwat, CEO/Founder)
Dr. Amjad Saqib is the Founder and CEO of Akhuwat, Pakistan’s largest Islamic microfinance institution. It is also one of the few social enterprises that has managed to cross the chasm and reach incredible scale, becoming a north star for so many entrepreneurs in the social sector.
Their team of 5,500 employees has reached over 2.5 million households across their 700 branches in just 16 years, and today we will dig into how they have managed to do this. We’ll also talk about phase 2 of Akhuwat, which is the exciting work they are doing in education through Akhuwat University, Akhuwat College, over 250 schools that they’ve adopted, and a lot more.
Dr. Saqib is aslo not a typical entrepreneur, in that his background is as a civil servant officer, and so we’ll also get to understand more about what makes Dr. Amjad Saqib Dr. Amjad Saqib: some of his spiritual beliefs, practices and rituals, and the inspiration behind his work and his journey.
*Building Pakistan is brought to you by the team at Amal Academy (amalacademy.org), with support from +Acumen (plusacumen.org) as our distribution partner. Illustrations and production editing are by Awais Farooq (Amal Academy). Music is provided by Danny Roberts (dannyroberts.com), Lydia Cole and Ryan Baxley.
Building Pakistan with Benje Williams
For our final episode of this season, we have an extremely special interview with Mr. Faisal Edhi and Ms. Bllquis Edhi of the Edhi Foundation.
Of course, this is one organization that needs no introduction, founded by Pakistan’s most beloved humanitarianist, social entrepreneur, and role model, Mr. Abdul Sattar Edhi, who dedicated his entire 88 year life towards the development of this country.
He started with just two paisas that his mother would give him each day, and from this small beginning, eventually opened a 24-hour dispensary in Mithadar, Karachi, where he would sleep on the bench in order to serve patients. Eventually he saved enough to purchase an ambulance, one of only 2 or 3 in the entire province, and drove through out all of Sindh responding to emergency calls.
From there, he kept working and over 60+ years developed the largest NGO in Pakistan, with nearly 2,000 ambulances, 350 fully serviced health centers, over 3,000 employees, nearly 50,000 midwives or nurses trained, and becoming a compass to hundreds of millions just through the way he lived his life.
And although he passed away in the holy month of Ramadan in 2016, his vision and work lives on, specifically through the leadership of his son Mr. Faisal Edhi, and his wife and partner, Ms. Bilquise Edhi.
Ms. Bilquise, of course, has been supporting him since the very early days, not only working alongside of him day in and day out, but also bringing a light in a world that Edhi sb said was often full of darkness.
And together they raised their family, including Mr. Faisal Edhi, who learned alongside Edhi sb as a child, worked along side him after finishing his higher studies, and with Ms. Bilquise has helped succeed the Foundation after Edhi sb’s passing.
Although it’s a bit long longer than usual, we wanted to share as much richness from this conversation as possible.
Together, Ms. Bilquise and Mr. Faisal Edhi share Edhi sb’s belief that the only way to change society is through our work, they share his hope that bad things happen quickly but eventually fade away while change comes slowly but lasts for a long time, and they share his conviction that we each have a role and responsibility to play in bringing about the long lasting change that the world so desperately needs.
*Building Pakistan is brought to you by the team at Amal Academy (amalacademy.org), with support from +Acumen (plusacumen.org) as our distribution partner. Illustrations and production editing are by Awais Farooq (Amal Academy). Music is provided by Danny Roberts (dannyroberts.com), Lydia Cole and Ryan Baxley.
