Abdul Sattar Edhi and Social Entrepreneurship

Abdul Sattar Edhi was considered “the world's greatest living humanitarian” alive by the Huffington Post in 2013. To masses he was known as “Angel of Mercy” and his organization owns world’s largest fleet of private ambulances. He can be considered one of the most accomplished and recognized social entrepreneurs of our era.

Social Entrepreneurship

As per definition by the Institute for Social Entrepreneurs, “The social entrepreneur is a mission-driven individual who uses a set of entrepreneurial behaviors to deliver a social value to the less privileged, all through an entrepreneurially oriented entity that is financially independent, self-sufficient, or sustainable”. Abdul Sattar Edhi was mission-driven, possessed all the entrepreneurial tendencies and he delivered great value to less privileged people of Pakistan.

A Short Biography

Edhi was born in 1928 in present day India and he along with his family migrated to Pakistan, now an independent country in 1947. He learned of human suffering at an early age of 11 when he found his mother paralyzed and mentally ill. When he migrated to Pakistan empty handed, in 1947, he was empty handed but determined to do something for sufferings of mankind. He relocated to Karachi and worked as a cloth seller. But ultimately he converted his shop into a free dispensary in 1951. He provided funds for this dispensary by standing in streets and begging for money. He equipped himself with basic medical training and provided medical care to people who needed anywhere in the city. Soon he established Edhi Foundation and Edhi Trust with his wife, a nurse by profession.  In his career of over 50 years, he has built 50,000 orphanages, thousands of free dispensaries and various schools. Edhi foundation owns world’s largest network of ambulances; he has buried over 200,000 unclaimed dead bodies personally and his organization has provided free education, food and residence to over a million of children in half a century. He never accepted any government aid and his resources depend on the charity and donations of people. As a simple humble human being, he lived in a one bedroom apartment with his wife and mostly owned two pairs of clothes and never took a salary from his organization. He died on 8^th July 2016 after a prolonged illness. His funeral prayers were attended by several high profile civil and military officials as well as renowned persons from every walk of life.  He was honored by a 19 gun salute, only third person in the country to be honored in this way and only second civilian after the founder of Pakistan.

A Successful Social Entrepreneur

Abdul Sattar Edhi started his social work, with literary no resources at his disposal and no apparent support from anyone in the society. Edhi Foundation and Edhi Trust are built on superstructure of his personal efforts and his personal philosophy.  As a social entrepreneur, he accomplished a lot and he served an example to the social entrepreneurial philosophy. He successfully founded and ran an organization which has rescued millions from suffering and agony in 50 years. He was self-motivated and mission driven, his philosophy serves the basis for his entrepreneurial social work. It would be work looking into the life and work of a person whose personal contribution to lessen the sufferings of mankind without discrimination of color and creed. His contribution is significant and this makes him an inspiration for young social entrepreneur who want to make a difference in the society. He ran a very large non-for-profit organization successfully for decades. He proved himself to be a distinguished humanitarian and an excellent entrepreneur.  His philosophy, his entrepreneurial spirit, his personal contribution to greater cause, are all the good reasons study him under the light of current entrepreneurial theories and models.

Entrepreneurial Mode

Edhi Trust and Edhi Foundation, the social enterprise founded by Abdul Sattar Edhi is a non-for-profit organization. Sole purpose of this enterprise is to create a social impact. So, it follows the business model of a Charity.

Charity

Edhi's Bheek (Begging) Mission

The organization possesses huge financial resources; still it does not indulge in activities aimed at generating profit. It financiers are wealthy people in Pakistan and around the globe. People have been impressed by the philosophy of Edhi and helped him with their donations.  There is no motivation of profit in financial terms although financial stability has helped the organization expand its network throughout the country. Edhi Foundation is socially driven non-for-profit enterprise and thus it lies in the first section of Social Entrepreneurship Quadrant (fig-01).

Fig 01- Social Entrepreneurship Quadrant

                                                                              

This is traditional not-for-profit quadrant because such an organization is driven by social mission.  They are not taxation bounded but they must raise enough money to pay their expenses and keep their social work going. Edhi Foundation and Trust operates on the model of “live and help live”. There are cradles outside Edhi homes for abandoned babies. Any child put in that cradle, will be taken care and provided with education and food. It provides medical care for disabled people and feeds helpless women and men, especially elderly people abandoned by their families.  Hospitals and dispensaries provide medical aid to needy people in rural as well as urban areas. All this social welfare work is based on Abdul Sattar Edhi’s personal philosophy of creating social impact. He relied on donations and grants of wealthy people, he begged people while standing in the streets and he accepted donations from PRK 5.00 to thousands and millions. His operations are socially driven.  Charity model has proved to be a successful business model for Edhi’s organization. There is no fee involved in return for services provided by organization and Edhi Foundation does not accept any aid from government organizations so he built a successful enterprise based on his philosophy of collecting charity and using it to finance a huge organization.  People working in his organization are not motivated by profit and most of managers and organizers in such enterprises are motivated by social mission. Simplicity of offices and simple lifestyle of the founder does not mean operations of the organization are simple too. It is large organization with complex operations and administrative responsibilities. But Edhi Foundation has successfully overcome challenges and it successfully operates as a charity since last five decades. Basic philosophy and entrepreneurial model never changed in all these years although it has expanded many folds in every next decade.