Islamabad : Germany has conferred one of its highest civilian honours on Anita Khawaja, a German-born Sialkot resident, in recognition of her decades-long efforts to improve healthcare and education for football stitchers and underprivileged communities in her hometown in Punjab.
Mrs Khawaja, widow of the late Muhammad Anwar Khawaja, founder of Anwar Khawaja Industries, was awarded the Cross of Merit (1st Class) of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
The award was presented to her by German Ambassador Ina Lepel during a special ceremony here where members of her family, friends, fellow Pakistani recipients of German honours and journalists were in attendance.
Born in Germany’s capital Berlin in 1941, Mrs Khawaja first came to Pakistan through the Service Abroad programme as a young nurse in 1971 to train midwives at the Christian Memorial Hospital and later also traditional birth attendants, thereby helping to substantially reduce infant and maternal mortality in the Sialkot district.
After a brief stay in Europe, she married the late Muhammad Anwar Khawaja in 1975 and continued her work for disadvantaged citizens. In 1982, Mrs Khawaja set up an under-five healthcare clinic at the Bethania Hospital for the prevention of malnutrition, critical for the healthy development of children. She worked there until 1986.
