LARKANA: A social worker, named Ali Anwar Khokhar, locally known as Larkana’s Edhi, has been working on the issue of missing children and women for past 30 years.
During this period, he has successfully reunited as many as 11,000 missing kids and women to their families.
Though Khokhar has now gotten old but his ambition is still young and he is doing his best for the betterment of society.
Recipient of ‘Pride of Performance’, 75- year-old Khokhar said that he has prepared youngsters from his own family, including his son Younis Ali Khokhar, to carry his mission forward.
Presently, he is running a social welfare centre along with an ambulance on an Airport Road plot which was donated to him by the then deputy commissioner. However, he had started his work from a mosque located near the shrine of Qaim Shah Bukhari. He used to inform residents using mosque loud speakers about the missing or found children and in this way, he would successfully unite the missing persons to their families.
He said he used to sweep the courtyard of the mosque, fill its water pots and then work on his mission. Later the mosque authorities did not like his work asked him to leave, he added.
He said at that time he had no money even to buy a bicycle and he used to walk on streets and bazaars, holding a big bell in his hand. He would ring his bell and inform people about any missing or found child.
He said that he would not stop wandering in streets until he successfully finds the relatives or parents of the missing child.
He recalled that after walking in streets for a long time, finally, he managed to buy a bicycle which he still has.
He said so far as many as 11,000 lost people have been reunited with their parents with his efforts including children, girls and women.
He said that he had started this work for lost children but now people leave destitute and aged women and men at his centre.
He said that by profession he was a barber but his shop has been converted into a social welfare office because he has no time to work as a barber due to his increased workload.