The world is mourning the death of German-born Catholic nun and physician, Dr Ruth Pfau, who, known as Pakistan’s ‘Mother Teresa’, played an instrumental role in combatting leprosy in the nation.
Dr Pfau’s order – the Daughters of the Heart of Mary – announced she died in a hospital in Karachi at the age of 87 late last week after a prolonged illness.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that while Dr Pfau may have been born in Germany, “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,” the BBC reported him as saying.
Dr Pfau first encountered leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, in Pakistan in 1960 and returned in 1962 to establish a network of more than 150 clinics across the nation aimed at tackling the disease under the banner of the Karachi-based Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre. It was due to her efforts that the World Health Organization was able to declare that the disease was under control in the nation in 1996.
Harald Meyer-Porzky, of the Germany-based Ruth Pfau Foundation, said Dr Pfau had “given hundreds of thousands of people a life of dignity”.
Dr Pfau, who will be buried following a funeral mass in St Patrick’s Cathedral in Karachi on 19th August, received numerous awards for her work including the Hilal-e-Imtiaz – Pakistan’s second highest civilian award – in 1979 and the German Staufer Medal in 2015.
An online condolence book has been opened for people to share their thoughts.