Google pays homage to
“Pakistan’s Mother Teresa” with Doodle
 |
| The Google Doodle on Sr Ruth Pfau of Pakistan |
Sr. Ruth Pfau, the German-born Catholic nun of the Daughters
of the Heart of Mary, who died in 2017, is credited with eradicating leprosy or
Hansen’s disease from Pakistan. Google honoured her on her 90th birthday on 10
September.
By Robin Gomes
Google on Monday paid homage to Sr. Ruth Pfau, the
German-born Catholic nun credited with eradicating leprosy or Hansen’s disease
from Pakistan. The tech giant marked the revered nun on her 90th birth
anniversary with a Doodle.
A Google
Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's
homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable
historical figures.
The doodle depicts the German-Pakistani doctor, tending to a
patient. Google said it was honouring her she "devoted herself to
eradicating leprosy from Pakistan, saving countless lives".
Widely known as “Pakistan's Mother Teresa”, Sr. Pfau died on
Aug. 10, 2017, at age 87, after being admitted to Karachi’s Aga Khan Hospital a
few days earlier suffering from old age complications. She was laid to rest in
Karachi on 19 August, following full state honours, including a 19-gun salute,
for her priceless service.
Born on Sept. 9, 1929, in Leipzig, Sr. Ruth Pfau studied
medicine in the1950s at the universities of Mainz and Marburg in then West
Germany. After her graduation, she joined the religious order of the
Daughters of the Heart of Mary, which sent her as a missionary to India.
On her way, she stopped in Karachi on March 8, 1960, and was
held up because of some visa problem. It was here that she became
involved in working with people affected by leprosy or Hansen’s Disease.
In 1961 she went to Vellore, South India to acquire training
in the management of Leprosy. She returned to Karachi to organize and expand
the Leprosy Control Programme. Her Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre in
Karachi, Pakistan's first hospital dedicated to treating the disease, today has
157 branches across the country, that have helped more than 56,000 leprosy
patients.
Sr. Pfau has won numerous honours and recognition in
Pakistan and abroad for her humanitarian services. Germany awarded her
the Order of Merit in 1969. In 1979, the Pakistani government appointed
her Federal Advisor on Leprosy to the Ministry of Health and Social
Welfare. Pakistani government honoured her with the Hilal-e-Imtiaz in
1979 and the Hilal-e-Pakistan in 1989. She was granted Pakistani citizenship in
1988. In 2002 she won the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award, regarded as
Asia’s Nobel prize.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét