Woe and welfare

Designed to help identify the needs of Zarathushti community members worldwide who face crisis situations, the FEZANA (Federation of Zoroastrian Association of North America) Welfare Committee was set up two years ago. Providing emotional, financial or other aid as required, the committee networks with member associations, community action groups, families and individuals to authenticate the need and address it, notes the message seeking financial support from co-chairs Houtoxi Contractor and Hosi Mehta published in Manashni (September 2006), the monthly newsletter of the Zoroastrian Association of Houston.

Among the current demands on the committee is one appeal from the family of a child whose illness is imposing financial hardship as they are not covered by health insurance; another struggling with the loss of a young son, husband and father in the Bombay train bomb blasts. Multiple young women with children trapped in abusive marriages seeking to make a new path, miscellaneous requests for school supplies, daycare etc all seek a helping hand from the Welfare Committee.

Requesting funds from the community to help with the tasks at hand, the Committee requests donation cheques marked "FEZANA Welfare” to be forwarded to the Federation’s treasurer Katayun Kapadia, 3 Preamble Drive, Mount Laurel, NJ 08054, USA. While the committee is willing to use the funds for a particular appeal as noted by the donor, it would prefer to be able to use the finance as per its assessment of the needs of the applicants. Contractor and Mehta further offer to provide information on how donated funds have been spent and assure prospective donors that their contributions will be used in the best possible way.

The FEZANA Welfare team (L to R) Freya Shroff, Hosi Mehta and Houtoxi Contractor

In the meanwhile the case of the ill fated Bakhtyar and Rukhshana Rastegar, who had relocated in San Jose, California after the Katrina disaster in New Orleans last year, has been in the news. Last September they lost all their worldly belongings in Katrina and now their elder son Cyrus, a nurse, has been killed in a motorcycle accident, note a series of emails forwarded to Parsiana by Dara Acidwalla.

The late Cyrus Rastegar

Bakhtyar, a former NASA engineer now on disability with failing sight, and his wife, also a nurse, are the parents of two boys, Cyrus and Zubin. The Rastegars were among the worst hit Zoroastrians when hurricane Katrina battered New Orleans. Scattered by the storm, it was after much suffering and travail that the four were able to come together again with the help of Zoroastrians in Austin, Houston and FEZANA.

According to the email message from Kali Buhariwalla to the Zoroastrians of Dallas, Cyrus, the couple’s 24-year-old son, died on October 2, 2006 in a motorcycle accident in New Orleans, La. He was a student at Loyola University in New Orleans.

"We are asking for donations to help cover the funeral and related expenses of this family which have totaled $5,093. We will be collecting donations on Sunday at the children’s religious class and at the World Zarathushti Chamber of Commerce (WZCC) meeting,” writes Buhariwalla.