Zoroastrians Abroad
WZO House
The property called Bridge House has now been officially named World Zoroastrian House. The three-storeyed premises should be ready for occupation in 2018. "The building company has only just started stripping out the floors. Work will start in January,” specified Sammy Bhiwandiwalla, president of the World Zoroastrian Organisation (WZO). The centrally located property is a 10 minutes’ walk from the Feltham railway station and numerous bus routes.
In his chairman’s address at the annual general meeting held on September 4, 2017, Shahpur Captain had mentioned, "At the formation of WZO in 1980, the dream of Shirinbanoo Kutar and myself of having a building for WZO itself will finally be realized in 2018 — 38 years later… We shall be occupying the ground floor for our functions and half of the first floor for Setayash Gah (prayer room), a committee meeting room and a small library. The first floor will also have a flat for the caretaker. We hope to rent out the rest of the first floor and the second floor. We shall also be renting out the ground floor when not occupied by us.”
In preparation for the inauguration of the building, the WZO team is hoping to find donors who could contribute to the cost of furniture and fixtures in the community hall, worship room and other areas. The highest expenditure would be on the kitchen equipment (£ 34,500 or Rs 29,67,000), audiovisual equipment (£ 27,000 or Rs 23,22,000) and bar equipment (£ 17,650 or Rs 15,17,900) while the lowest would be £ 250 (Rs 21,500) for 10 chairs and £ 500 (Rs 43,000) for five tables. "We shall be delighted if our members come forward to donate for specific items or just generally,” urged Captain, requesting benefactors to visit their website www.w-z-o.org/funds and selecting "Property Fund.”
In his chairman’s address at the annual general meeting held on September 4, 2017, Shahpur Captain had mentioned, "At the formation of WZO in 1980, the dream of Shirinbanoo Kutar and myself of having a building for WZO itself will finally be realized in 2018 — 38 years later… We shall be occupying the ground floor for our functions and half of the first floor for Setayash Gah (prayer room), a committee meeting room and a small library. The first floor will also have a flat for the caretaker. We hope to rent out the rest of the first floor and the second floor. We shall also be renting out the ground floor when not occupied by us.”
In preparation for the inauguration of the building, the WZO team is hoping to find donors who could contribute to the cost of furniture and fixtures in the community hall, worship room and other areas. The highest expenditure would be on the kitchen equipment (£ 34,500 or Rs 29,67,000), audiovisual equipment (£ 27,000 or Rs 23,22,000) and bar equipment (£ 17,650 or Rs 15,17,900) while the lowest would be £ 250 (Rs 21,500) for 10 chairs and £ 500 (Rs 43,000) for five tables. "We shall be delighted if our members come forward to donate for specific items or just generally,” urged Captain, requesting benefactors to visit their website www.w-z-o.org/funds and selecting "Property Fund.”
World Zoroastrian House in Feltham, UK: will be inaugurated in 2018
"As regards the afargan, we asked Dinshaw Tamboly (chairman of the WZO Trust Fund) to see if there was any available from our places of worship in India, especially those that had closed. He said none was available. We have ordered a new one a couple of months ago from a manufacturer called Priti Soni in Bombay,” noted Bhiwandiwalla when responding to Parsiana’s queries. Fortunately they found a donor in the UK who offered to pay the cost of Rs 36,200 (£ 421).
A donation of £ 500,000 (Rs 4,30,00,000) pledged by Abtin Sassanfar of France, four years before his demise in 2017, had "kick started our journey into buying the WZO headquarters… Apart from this donation, Armaiti Engineer too had obtained substantial financial help for the Building Fund. So too have the trustees of the Firuz Madon Foundation with their donation of one million pounds (Rs 8,60,00,000).” Acknowledging the philanthropy of "our donors, big and small,” Captain named the Sadri Foundation, Dasturji Sohrabji Kutar Benevolent Fund and The World Zarathushtrian Trust Fund for their support.
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From the archive