Dr Ruth Pfau: Pakistan's Mother Teresa

Pakistan is full of unknown heroes this I never doubted. Finding them and knowing about them has been the real problem for me. But this has always been my passion. Sometimes it gets easier and that's what happened with me this morning. I was just skimming through the news paper when I came across a short article on this person and the more I read the more it amazed me. 

While I searched on the internet It was really sad to see there wasn't much information available. Perhaps we should sort out who our real heroes are; Actors, singers, sportsmen or real life personalities who can be a true example for us, something that our country badly needs.
Well anyways. 

They were two of them. One was born in Mexico while the other was born In Leipzig, Germany. Sister Bernice was a nun while the other was a doctor, Dr. Pfau who was born in 1929. She had four sisters and one brother. After World War II when the Russians occupied East Germany she escaped to West Germany along with her family and chose medicine as her future career. 

In 1949 she studied medicine at Mainz.

In the year 1958 she watched a movie on Leprosy which perhaps gave a direction to her life. Leprosy can cause permanent damage to the skin, nerves, limbs and eyes. Contrary to folklore, leprosy does not cause body parts to fall off, although they can become numb or diseased as a result of secondary infections. It can result in tissue loss causing fingers and toes to become shortened and deformed, as cartilage is absorbed into e body.

This disease was considered incurable in Pakistan. Whoever suffered from this disease was thrown out of the city and they died in misery. In 1960 there were thousands of people suffering from this disease and it was spreading fast. Some kind hearted people had build places for such people outside the city where they spent the last days of their life. People who passed through these buildings with their nose and eyes covered threw food inside and leprosy suffering people ate those mud stained rotis and other food items without any hesitation. They just had two options; Die in misery or suicide. 

Dr Ruth Pfau was a young pretty looking lady back then, living in one of the Europe's most developed county she had all the facilities anyone could have wished for but she wasn't satisfied. She wanted to do something with her life. It was providence that brought Dr. Pfau to Pakistan.

In 1960 Dr Ruth decided to dedicate the rest of her life to the people of Pakistan and their battle against Leprosy outbreaks. She came to Karachi and visited a leprosy colony on McLeod Road behind the City Railway Station. Here she decided that the care of patients would be her life's calling. She started with medical treatment for the Leprosy patients in a hut in this slumquarter.

The first main challenge for Dr. Ruth Pfau and Sister Bernice was to deal with strange things. Leprosy patients were amazed to see a foreign woman doing so much for them, this disease was considered a 'Punishment of God' , people thought it was the result of the sins of people who were suffering from it. This convincing people took alot of time but she never lost hope. She started curing the patients, made them eat with her own hands, bandaged them with care when even their families had abandoned them.

Perhaps it was her sincerity and love for humanity that Allah liked, whoever came to her was cured. By the year 1963 Dr. I K Gill had also joined her. They opened 'The Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre' for the patients and also started training social workers, paramedical staff and doctors. In 1965 this centre was converted into a Hospital. 

She wanted to start an awareness campaign but needed 7 million Pakistani rupees. She went back to Germany, collected donations and started her campaign successfully. This brought a revolution against Leprosy in Pakistan, she kept on working hard and opened around 156 centers all over Pakistan. Patients all over the country, even Afghanistan came for the treatment. She sured almost 60000 patients all over the country. 

Due to her hard work and devotion of the last 50 years of life to fighting leprosy in Pakistan. In 1996, Pakistan was declared by the World Health Organization to have controlled leprosy, one of the first countries in Asia to achieve this goal.

In recognition of her services to the country, she was awarded Pakistani citizenship in 1988. Ruth Pfau is recognised in Pakistan and abroad as a distinguished human being and has been awarded many prizes and medals. Sister Ruth Pfau was among recipients of civilian awards at President's House on Pakistan Day March 23, 1989. Dr Ruth Pfau received the Hilal-i-Pakistan award for her work with leprosy patients. On the occasion of Pakistan Independence Day on 14 August 2010, the President of Pakistan awarded the very high civil award of Nishan-i-Quaid-i-Azam to Dr. Pfau for public service.

In 2010 after her work helping people by Pakistan's recent deadly flooding, she is being hailed as Pakistan's 'Mother Teresa'.

For a country where people fight over praying for a little girl who was shot because she wanted to study, where cancer is said to be cured by magic, where people call each other kafir just to prove  themselves a good muslim, Madness and other diseases are solved by a stick of 'Peers' , where humans are judged on the amount of money they have instead of the character they have, where people hate 'Goras' for no reason and take out their frustration on their own cars, petrol pumps and shops .. 

This was a miracle by a women who devoted her life for a country such as ours. Who didn't for once think she was helping a non christian or a muslim, she just helped and cured humanity. These people are our real heroes, someone we can be proud of, someone that should be our inspiration, we must award them more than awards. We must show the world if we condemn devils like Sam Bacile we accept the greatness of people like Dr. Ruth Pfau, we give them a place in our hearts, we love them, we thank them and we never forget them.

Special Thanks to:

Javed Chaudhry
Express Tribune
The Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre
Dawn News