Pakistanis settled in Australia have donated 50 ambulances to the Edhi Foundation, and the vehicles were handed over to Faisal Edhi in Karachi on Tuesday by Edhi Foundation Australia’s incharge Hamid Khan.
“Pakistanis living in Australia have once again donated 50 ambulances to the Edhi Foundation which would help in transporting sick and injured people without any delay to hospital,” said the president of Abdus Sattar Edhi International Foundation, Australia, Khan, while talking journalists in Karachi.
The foundation struggled for funds after Maulana Abdus Sattar Edhi, its founder, died in July 2016 due to kidney failure and other ailments. But now people have once again started donating funds to the foundation, which is running Pakistan’s largest welfare service, including ambulance service and shelters.
The ambulances donated by the Pakistani-Australians include small and medium-sized transport vehicles, which were purchased in Pakistan and later transformed into ambulances to ply on roads in various cities of the country.
The ambulance fleet of the Edhi Foundation Pakistan has grown to 2,000 ambulances, which is said to the largest ambulance service in the private sector in the world. Hamid Khan said last year that Australia-based Pakistanis had donated 32 ambulances, but this year more funds were collected and 50 ambulances were donated.
He added that in addition to the supply of the ambulances, Pakistanis in Australia were also funding various other projects of the foundation in Pakistan, including the provision of health services.
“Our countrymen living in Australia are also helping the Edhi Foundation in upgrading the training institute and hospital in Lyari, which would be transformed into a modern health facility in the coming years.”
Edhi Foundation head Faisal Edhi felicitated the Pakistani-Australians for their generosity and said every year they had to purchase 200 ambulances.
“After Abdus Sattar Edhi’s death, we had faced reduction in donations from people, but now situation is improving and people are reposing their confidence like they were doing in the life of Edhi Sahab.” Faisal stated that they had also acquired 150 modern ambulances from China, which would be utilised in the far- flung areas of Balochistan, Sindh and other parts of the country.
