“Aid for handicapped”

I have to say a big thank you to Parsiana for publishing my appeal and the many generous Parsis who have sent their cheques to the S. P. J. Sadhana School for the developmentally challenged ("Aid for handicapped,” Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, May 21, 2006).

I also have to clarify that I made a serious mistake when I said no Parsi trust fund or individual has helped the School. In fact the only community that has helped in a big way is the Parsi, I was corrected by the School. For example one Parsi mother did the navjote of her developmentally challenged child and told all her guests to gift the perhamni (cash gifts) to S. P. J. Sadhana School from which they formed a trust fund. I applaud her and her family and many families like hers.

I thank God that I was wrong and can humbly apologize. The fact that we Zoroastrian Parsis are always kind and generous brings tears to my eyes and reinforces my faith.

Yet the fact remains that we need an inflow of 10 crores and any one who can help us is welcome, especially great charitable families. My gut feeling is that we shall have to depend on the "kindness of strangers” to send big and small cheques "boond boondé sarovar bharai (with every drop a lake fills up).”

Today please pray for us all who wish to create a corpus for this developmentally challenged children’s school, that God will help parents like me who want to, with our own efforts and hard work, create a huge corpus for these beautiful children. We need your prayers for these beautiful children to be healed by God’s grace and God’s will.

MEHERNOSH SHROFF