There are times when you begin to doubt yourself. To see flaws, imperfections in all aspects
of your persona. Then cracks appear
which effect your outer façade. How you
seem to others deteriorates until huge chunks of who you once were begin to
fall away. It’s not that we are, what
others think of us. It’s more that we
are easily polluted by our environment.
We all like to think of ourselves as impervious to such erosion but
unfortunately we’re not. Once the slide
into disintegration has begun no energy goes into reconstruction. All of it is
diverted into keeping up appearances.
Trying to fool the onlooker that, actually, all is well. So many organisations and individuals are in that mode. They don’t take criticism well because it
strikes at the very core of what they have become. Hypocritical shells of themselves. Criticism to them can only fuel huge self-deception and
aggressive defensiveness. It is so easy
to lose the plot. Principles go out the
window as pragmatism dominates. In such
a slippery state the hardest thing to do, is exactly what you need to do. You need to set aside your own perspectives
and learn from others. It is perhaps
hardest to do because it demands a trust of others at a point when we no longer
even trust ourselves.
One example of what one individual can achieve when they
believe in themselves and go for their goals is the Edhi Foundation. Abdul Sattar
Edhi started a welfare centre in Pakistan with the equivalent of
fifty-three pounds. He bought an old
van, which he called "poor man’s van" and he drove around providing
medical help and burying unclaimed bodies.
With his wife, a nurse, he has built a foundation that has
grown to have 300 centres across the country, runs 8 hospitals providing free
medical care, eye hospitals, diabetic centres, surgical units, a 4- bed cancer
hospital and mobile dispensaries and they have in addition to a fleet of
ambulances their very own air ambulance service.
Their achievements are breath taking indeed and include:
20,000 abandoned babies rescued
40,000 qualified nurses have been trained
50,000 orphans are housed in Edhi Homes
1 million babies have been delivered in Edhi Maternity
Centres
1800 ambulances (the largest ambulance fleet in Pakistan and
the largest private ambulance service network in the world)
He is now 82 years old and has been working for 60 years to
serve the poor and the suffering. Here is a description of this modest man and
his home,
“Edhi remains a very down-to-earth person, dressed always in
grey homespun cotton local clothes.
Apart from the one room, which he uses for his living quarters, the rest
of the building serves as his workplace in Mithadar, a locality of old Karachi
that is full of narrow streets and congested alleyways. Adjoining their living
room is a small kitchen where his wife usually prepares the midday meal. Next
to it is a washing area where bodies are bathed and prepared for burial.”
Amazing
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