Ruth Pfau

Ruth Katherina Martha Pfau, FCM (; 9 September 1929 – 10 August 2017) was a German–Pakistani Catholic Christian religious sister and physician who was a member of the "Society of the Daughters of the Heart of Mary". She emigrated from Germany in 1961 and devoted more than 55 years of her life to fighting leprosy in Pakistan. Pfau was honoured with Hilal-e-Pakistan, Hilal-i-Imtiaz, Nishan-i-Quaid-i-Azam, and the Sitara-i-Quaid-i-Azam awards.

Pfau contributed to the establishment of 157 leprosy clinics across Pakistan that treated over 56,780 people. Fazaia Ruth Pfau Medical College and Dr. Ruth Pfau Hospital are named after her death in Karachi. She died in August 2017 and was buried with full state honours.

Early life Pfau was born on 9 September 1929 in Leipzig, Germany, to Lutheran Christian parents. She had four sisters and one brother. Her home was destroyed by bombing during World War II. During the 1950s, she studied medicine at the University of Mainz. During this period Pfau frequently met a Dutch Christian woman who was a concentration camp survivor and was dedicating her life to "preaching love and forgiveness". After "her life-changing experience", Pfau left "a romantic association" with a fellow student and became involved in discussions in Mainz's philosophy and classical literature department. Pfau stated that she learned the "courage of being human" from Saint Thomas Aquinas through Josef Pieper's writing. She joined a Catholic parish, and she was greatly influenced by Romano Guardini's The Lord in this period. She travelled to various parts of Pakistan and across the border to Afghanistan to rescue patients who were abandoned by their families or locked in small rooms for a lifetime.

Life in Pakistan

Not all of us can prevent a war; but most of us can help ease sufferings—of the body and the soul. — Ruth Pfau Here she decided that the care of patients would be her life's calling. She started medical treatment for the leprosy patients in a hut in this area. The Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre was founded (which later branched out into tuberculosis and blindness prevention programmes)

In 1979, she was appointed as the Federal Advisor on Leprosy to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of Government of Pakistan.

Due to her continued efforts, in 1996 the World Health Organization declared Pakistan one of the first countries in Asia to have controlled leprosy. According to the Dawn, the number of leprosy cases nationwide dropped significantly from 19,398 in the early 1980s to 531 in 2016. She refused life support, which her doctors removed the next day, Pfau had been dealing with several health problems due to her advanced age, including kidney and heart disease,

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said: "Dr Ruth Pfau may have been born in Germany, [but] her heart was always in Pakistan." He further added that, "she came 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. We will remember her for her courage, her loyalty, her service to the eradication of leprosy and most of all her patriotism." The state funeral for Pfau was held at Saint Patrick's Cathedral, in front of which the flags of Pakistan and Vatican City were flown at half mast, with Archbishop Joseph Coutts presiding over the Requiem. Pfau was reportedly the first Christian and first non-Muslim to have a state funeral in Pakistan. She was then buried at Gora Qabaristan, a Christian cemetery in Karachi.

Legacy

Pfau is well respected by Muslims in Pakistan who were the majority of patients at the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre.

In 2018, Pfau's private residence in Karachi was converted into a museum to showcase some of her personal possessions.

Awards and recognition Pfau is remembered 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. In 2006, Pfau was honoured as the 'Woman of the Year 2006' by City FM89.

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".

On 9 September 2019, Google honoured her with a Google Doodle of her treating a patient.

In February 2020, the President of Pakistan Dr. Arif Alvi inaugurated the Fazaia Ruth Pfau Medical College in Karachi. The college was established by the Pakistan Air Force.

Honours 1969: Order of Merit (Germany) 1969: Sitara i Quaid i Azam 2003: Jinnah Award from the Jinnah Society 2004: Doctor of Science (DSc), honoris causa. Aga Khan University, Karachi. 2017: Civil Hospital, Karachi renamed to Dr Ruth K.M. Pfau Hospital The Pakistan Mint will issue 50,000 commemorative coins in honor of Dr Pfau.

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