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.
E05 Building Pakistan with Mr. Syed Babar Ali (Nestle Pakistan, LUMS, Packages)
Building Pakistan with Benje Williams
1 hour 5 minutes 43 seconds
8 years ago
E05 Building Pakistan with Mr. Syed Babar Ali (Nestle Pakistan, LUMS, Packages)
The New York Times has called Mr. Syed Babar Ali not just an institution builder in Pakistan, but an institution himself: helping to build industry when the nation was just born by starting some of the country’s first and most successful companies.
Some of those institutions include the first and now largest packaging company, Packages Limited, one of the first milk processing companies, Milk Pak Limited, which later became Nestle Pakistan, the largest food processing company, and of course, LUMS university, which the NYT has called the Harvard University of Pakistan.
He has also profoundly matured Pakistan’s business ecosystem by bringing in various multinationals through joint venture partnerships, including Tetra Pak Pakistan, Siemens Pakistan, Coca-Cola Pakistan and Sanofi-Aventis Pakistan.
And in addition to all of this, his social work also includes Ali Institute of Education, Naqsh School of Arts, Ali Institute of Technical Education, and Sydenwala Schools. He is also one of our investors and advisors at Amal, and supports various other education institutions like Aitchison College, Kinnaird College and Lahore School of Economics.
We couldn’t be more grateful for the unspeakable work he has done to build this country and it’s people, for his never ending curiosity to learn from others and to believe in their journey, and for the example that he’s set for each of us on what it means to live a life of purpose.
*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.
