KARACHI: It’s one day to Mother’s Day and the children’s nursery at the Edhi Home in Mithadar is decorated with balloons and posters along with framed photographs of the late couple Abdul Sattar Edhi and Bilquis Edhi.

Children in the classrooms are busy making greeting cards, drawing pictures of themselves and the only woman whom they have come to know as their mother, their Chhoti (younger) Mummy Sabah Faisal Edhi.

The duties of the busy mother of so many children, including four of her own, starts from early morning. After tending to her own household duties and sending off her youngest, Moosa Edhi, to school, she is in the nursery at 8am sharp, inquiring from the staff there if everyone had a good sleep, if anyone had any issues during the night.

It has become a habit with her to visit the nursery first to inquire about her babies before getting to her other work of calling up the other Edhi Homes and Centres, asking about the other children, their health and school progress, asking about the women in their Homes, tending to the marriage proposals, and adoption procedures and planning outings and picnics for the children.

When parents discover their babies are ‘not well’, they quietly leave them in our cot, says Sabah Edhi as country celebrates Mother’s Day today

But today, before she can go inside the nursery, she stops in the playroom to admire three-year-old Fatima’s greeting her with a broad smile and a happy dance. Chhoti Mummy hugs the child and gestures to know if she has eaten breakfast. Fatima is deaf and mute. She has only recently been fitted with a cochlear implant, which has enabled her to hear and appreciate music to which she loves to dance.

It is quite obvious that Sabah’s favourite in the nursery is five-year-old Moosa, named by Mummy, Bilquis Edhi, herself, after her own youngest grandson, Sabah and Faisal’s youngest son Moosa. But this Moosa, even though he is five, doesn’t look more than a year old. His growth is stunted. Sabah lifts him out of his cot and cuddles him lovingly. The nursery only has special children or children with learning disabilities. Moosa was the last child here named by Bilquis Edhi. The rest have been given names by their Chhoti Mummy.

There are two newborn baby girls, Aimen and Noor Fatima, peacefully sleeping in their cradles in the cheerful blue nursery. Both the babies are blind.

“The moment some parents discover that all is not well with their babies they quietly leave them in our cot,” says Sabah. “They never return for them,” she sighs. “Parents of very sick children, too, disown them even when they know that their child doesn’t have much time to live. We take them in, find them the best of medical care till the last of their breath,” she adds.

“On discovering a child in the cot, we first try to get information about who left him or her there followed by a thorough medical check-up. If they are in need of medical care, we make sure that they receive the best that there is. Just the other day, someone left a little girl suffering from diarrhoea. She had to be hospitalised,” she informs.

Just then one little girl, of about four years of age, who also looks like she is considerably attached to her Chhoti Mummy walks in and runs up to her. “She is normal. There is nothing wrong with this one,” Sabah says. “She says her name is Manahil. We found her near Sohrab Goth. Most of the children in our Sohrab Goth Centre are much older so I brought her here with me until we can find her parents,” she informs.

“By the grace of God, there is no shortage of space, love and care in this Home built for these children by Edhi Sahab and Mummy,” she says, kissing the child’s head.

“All children are a blessing, a priceless gift from God. I wish the parents who discard their children like or neglect them would realise this. I wish such parents could love their special, disabled or sick children like they love their normal children,” she says.

“Sometimes, these very children who they love so much because they are normal and healthy grow up to discard their parents when they are old and weak. That’s the story of so many old people in our homes,” she concludes.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2024