Dr Ruth Katherina Martha Pfau (9 September 1929 – 10 August 2017) was a German-born Pakistani physician and nun of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. She moved from Germany to Pakistan and devoted more than 50 years of her life fighting leprosy in Pakistan. Known as “Pakistan’s Mother Teresa”, Pfau contributed in establishing 157 leprosy clinics across Pakistan, which treated over 56,780 people.
Dr Pfau witnessed leprosy in Pakistan for the first time in 1960 and returned to set up clinics across the country. Her efforts meant that in 1996 the disease was declared to have been brought under control. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said Dr Pfau “may have been born in Germany, but her heart was always in Pakistan. Dr Ruth came to Pakistan here at the dawn of a young nation, looking to make lives better for those afflicted by disease, and in doing so, found herself a home”.
Dr Pfau rescued disfigured and suffering children who had been confined to caves and cattle pens for years by their parents, who were terrified that they were contagious. She trained Pakistani doctors and attracted foreign donations, founding Pakistan’s National Leprosy Control Program and the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre, which has a presence in every Pakistani province. Dr Pfau also won praise for her efforts in helping the victims of devastating floods in south-western Pakistan in 2010.
She received numerous honors for her work, including the Hilal-e-Imtiaz – Pakistan’s second highest civilian award – in 1979, and the German Staufer Medal in 2015.She wrote four books in German about her work in Pakistan, including “To Light A Candle”, which has been translated into English.
Dr. Pfau is recognized in Pakistan and abroad as a distinguished human being and had been awarded many awards and medals. On 23 March 1989, Pfau received the Hilal-i-Pakistan award presented by the then-President of Pakistan Ghulam Ishaq Khan at the President House for her work with leprosy patients. Speaking at a function in Islamabad on 30 January 2000, to mark the 47th World Leprosy Day, the then-President Rafiq Tarar praised Pfau, who built up the National Leprosy Control Program in Pakistan, for working not only for those afflicted with leprosy, but also for those with tuberculosis.
On 14 August 2010, on the occasion of Pakistan’s Independence Day, the then-President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari awarded Pfau the Nishan-i-Quaid-i-Azam for public service. She was hailed as Pakistan’s “Mother Teresa” after her work towards helping people displaced by the 2010 Pakistan floods in 2015, Pfau was awarded the Staufer Medal, the highest award of the German state of Baden-Württemberg.
On 19 August 2017, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah announced renaming of the Civil Hospital Karachi to Dr. Ruth Pfau Hospital as an acknowledgment of “selfless services of the late social servant.
Sources:
https://www.goethe.de/ins/pk/en/kul/mag/21323088.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40886234
https://philanthropydaily.com/learning-from-the-extraordinary-life-of-ruth-pfau/