KARACHI – The common people who rush to disaster sites for helping victims, instead create problems for the rescue workers in shifting the injured to hospitals, said renowned philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi.
He said this while talking with Pakistan Today after delivering his speech at a lecture session titled ‘Emergency Medical Care During Disasters’ organised by the Aga Khan University Hospital on Thursday.
“In case of any disaster, most people rush to the site and want to help the injured, but actually they create hindrances for the rescue workers,” said Edhi, suggesting that common people should not intervene in rescue as they are not trained.
It is a challenge to provide emergency medical care in disaster-stricken areas in Pakistan and more trained paramedics, ambulance drivers and rescue workers are needed, he told Pakistan Today.
The founder of the Edhi Foundation – the largest welfare organisation in Pakistan – said his foundation has allocated 40 ambulances in Karachi alone for any natural disaster, fire, building collapse or any other disaster.
In order to train ambulance drivers and rescue workers, the Edhi Foundation has started disaster management classes in Lahore and Karachi, where disaster experts from Ireland would train them, he added.
“Although Edhi’s ambulance drivers and rescue workers are well-trained in rescuing the injured during any disaster situation, the morality ratio of the injured between the disaster site and the hospital was found to be higher,” Edhi said, adding ‘so we thought to impart further training to our drivers and workers for reducing the number of deaths.’
“We have invited five disaster management experts from Ireland, who will arrive next week and train the ambulance drivers on how to rescue the injured victims in a crowded situation and take them safely to hospital,” said Edhi.
Edhi told Pakistan Today that most of the ambulance drivers in Pakistan are not even aware of the Airway, Breathing and Circulation (ABC) method – a life-saving technique – due to which disaster victims are suffering as most deaths are because of untrained rescue workers.
An internationally-renowned social worker, Edhi is involved in providing medical and social aid to the needy not only in Pakistan but in other parts of the world as well. In 1985, he was conferred the Nishan-e-Imtiaz for his services.
Earlier, while delivering the lecture, Edhi said that Pakistan needs a bloody revolution like the one in Burma (Myanmar).
“The son of retired army personnel brought the revolution in Burma. We are waiting for the same to happen in Pakistan, as the majority of citizens do not pay taxes and politicians are thieves,” he added.
The acclaimed philanthropist said that to take Pakistan out of the current hiatus, everyone has to adopt simplicity. “People spend a lot of money on chai (tea) and smoking, and even get huge loans on the name of Valima. When I got married, the clothes I wore were three months old, and only I and my wife took lunch in the Valima,” he said, adding that everyone must respect humanity.
On being asked that why he was not leading the revolution, he has been talking about for a long time, Edhi replied that Allah has selected him to serve the humanity and if Allah asks him to lead a revolution, he will think about it.
“When my parents migrated from India, they had nothing in their hands. I never attended a school and always speak in my mother tongue Sindhi and Gujarati; even then I have visited 73 countries. When I stand on a roadside, even daily wagers hand out Rs 25 to me, as it is all because of the trust people have on me,” he said.
Talking about his early days as a social worker, Edhi said he opened 12 dispensaries in Karachi and requested the doctors to come and sit at these clinics, never appealing for any donations but people come to him and pay him whatever they want to.
“If I stand on a roadside in Lahore for a whole day, I will get Rs 70 to Rs 80 million,” he added.
On a question that what he sees of his foundation after his death and who will run such a huge organization, Edhi said that his entire family was attached with social working and would look after his foundation.
