Mumbai’s Parsi children collect 15,000 vessels for charity in just 3 hours
MUMBAI: A bunch of excited children from well-off Parsi households ran a figurative “marathon” to help their less fortunate peers Sunday. The little ones aged 5-15 years collected 14,758 kitchen vessels within three hours, and distributed them to tribal and impoverished households.
These children are affiliated with an NGO named Extremely Young Zoroastrians and most live in Parsi Baugs.
Highlights
- The little ones aged 5-15 years collected 14,758 kitchen vessels within three hours, and distributed them to tribal and impoverished households.
- They likened the exercise to a marathon since the fastest average run in a marathon is three hours, which is the time they utilised for collecting utensils.
They likened the exercise to a marathon since the fastest average run in a marathon is three hours, which is the time they utilised for collecting utensils. Also, the marathon spans 42 km which is also the distance the drive equalled from Colaba to Thane.
From 9.30am to 12.30pm Sunday, the bright-eyed kids went door to door in Parsi Baugs across Colaba, Grant Road, Andheri and Bandra, gathering unbroken pots, pans, cookers, bowls, dishes, plates, spoons, cups, ladles and glasses — everything except glass utensils and knives. Afterwards, the adults packed them into gunny bags and distribution began. Groups of donors handed them out in tribal padas of Aarey, fishermen’s colony of Machhimar Nagar, Colaba, and to NGOs like WWH and Goonj.
XYZ founder Hoshaang Gotla says the initiative arose from the wish to give back to society. “Past generations of Parsi philanthropists have contributed so much, and a few like the Tatas and Godrejs still continue to do so. Our desire was to encourage the common Parsi to give. We ourselves carry out community programmes all year. But we do one big annual drive like this which makes children realise that they can make a difference without even spending money,” Hoshaang said.
This is their fifth year. “In the first year we assembled a Blessings Bag. I asked the kids to fill a bag with any item they were not using, like a toy, game or shoes. We got 1,500 bags between 300 children. The following year we collected 12,000 pairs of shoes. Children outgrow shoes very fast,” he said.
Sculptor Arzan Khambatta will fashion a model out of the unusable vessels and auction it. The proceeds will be used to buy new utensils for those households that were left out Sunday.
