Ruth Pfau
1929-2017 20th century
A life decided by an unplanned stop, and held to the end.
Who was Ruth Pfau?
Born in Leipzig, a refugee from East Germany, she became a doctor and then a religious sister. An unplanned stopover in Karachi set her in front of a slum of leprosy patients; she stayed fifty-five years. With Pakistani teams she built a network of clinics that pushed leprosy back across the country, and Pakistan gave her a state funeral.
In their own words
I don't want to be remembered as the woman who eradicated leprosy in Pakistan.
At some point you realise that life is simply like that. Only, one must not give in to the temptation of looking away.