“It feels like yesterday, when as a kid I witnessed a stray cat which used to visit our house being taken away and I couldn’t do much about it. But today, sitting here I feel even a lifetime is not enough to serve these four legged creatures,” says Fizzah Shah.
Beating five contestants who have taken up different causes, Shah won the TV contest ‘Kisko milega cash?’, telecast on Star One on April 17. Throughout the show, she stressed on the uniqueness of her cause of building a hospital for animals in Mumbai.
Talking about her experience in the game show, she says, “A friend of mine informed me about the contest.
After a little reluctance they called me for an audition and I got selected. After that there has been no looking back. For the past 130 years there has been just one hospital in Mumbai for animals. I want to build a hospital so that more animals can be saved from accidents or illnesses. “
Initially, she was selected for a prize of Rs 5 lakh which she won through public voting and later was invited again for the finals which she won and pocketed another Rs 25 lakh. The judges were pleased with her skills in presenting her arguments and her devotion to the cause.
“We are trying to approach individuals and organisations who can donate us land.
These days due to the awareness created by the media a lot of people are getting involved with issues like animal rights,” she says.
Fizzah Shah writes for a pet magazine called ‘Woof’ and actively participates in awareness campaigns and projects taken up by IDA.
“IDA has given me a platform to carry out my work at the grassroots level. For the past ten years I have been supporting every initiative that the organization has taken up.” She has also donated two large ambulances of which one is fitted with a hydraulic lift to pick up large animals that are in distress.
She has also donated a small vehicle to work as a mobile clinic for the treatment of animals with minor ailments on the road itself. “There were times when I personally drove this van to reach out to animals and rush them to the SPCA hospital in Parel.
That’s when I realized the need for another hospital,” says Shah. “There is a conflict between animals and humans. We raise our voices and fight for our needs but these animals are not able to demand their rights. I hope people realize that as we belong to a more evolved and higher species we have to empathetically listen to their silent cries,” says Shah on an optimistic note.
URL: http://epaper.indianexpress.com/Default.aspx?selpg=1445&selDt=04/24/2008&BMode=100