Ruth Pfau

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Ruth Pfau (born 1929) is a German Pakistani who devoted her life for the leprosy patients in Pakistan.

Ruth Pfau was born in Leipzig, Germany in 1929. They were five sisters and one brother. After World War II when the Russians occupied east Germany she escaped to Western Germany along with her family and chose medicine as her future career. In 1949 she studied medicine at Mainz. She was not satisfied with her life. She wanted to do something with her life. It was chance that brought Dr. Pfau to Pakistan. In 1962 she was on her way to India after joining a religious order, but due to visa problems she made a stopover in Pakistan. She came to Karachi and visited a leprosy colony of the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre. Here she decided that the care of patients would be her life's calling.

She went to the far off areas of Pakistan where there was no medical facility for leprosy patients. She collected donations and made hospitals in Rawalpindi and Karachi.

Ruth Pfau is recognised in Pakistan and abroad as a distinguished human being and has been awarded many prizes and medals.