Early Life
Zerbanoo was born in India, the eldest daughter of Bailey Irani, the founder President of the World Zoroastrians Organisation, and Kitty Mazda, who studied child development with the educationalist, Madame Montessori. She was brought up in London, where her parents ran a hotel, and attended Roedean School, near Brighton.
Zerbanoo’s charity work began when she was six years old. After seeing children in need in the Indian city of Pune, Zerbanoo returned to London, made flags and sold them to passers-by for a penny each; she raised ten pounds, which she sent to the then Indian Prime Minister Pandit Nehru. The Prime Minister sent Zerbanoo a thank you letter stating that if all little girls in London were like her, there would be fewer poor children in Poona (Pune).Years later, Zerbanoo would be honoured with the Nehru Centenary Award for her work championing the rights of women, children and minorities internationally.
Read more about this topic: Zerbanoo Gifford
Famous quotes related to early life:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)