Keen interest1 in service organisations

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32708, 10 September 1971, Page 5

Keen interest 1 in service organisations

| A keen interest in: social service organisations occupies a great; deal of Mrs Marie H. ■Shah’s time. Mrs Shah is the wife of the Taiwan Ambassador to New Zealand (Mr K. C. Shah) who. was in Christchurch yesterday to open the UJJ.I.C.E.F. Christmas card appeal. With the wives of ambassadors from India and Belgium and the South African Consul-General’s wife, Mrs Shah is a member of the U.N.I.C.E.F. committee in Wellington. “U.N.I.C.E.F. is a very! worthy cause,” she said. “I was also a member in Taiwan, where it undertakes disease control, family planning and even food nutrition by way of school children’s lunches.” Mrs Shah was especially interested in the family planning work. Taiwan has a very high population. Unless birth control were increased, the results could be disastrous, she said. U.N.I.C.E.F. is self-sufficient in Taiwan and it performs its work in an advisory capacity. As well as her work for U.N.1.C.E.F., Mrs Shah is patron of the Pan Pacific and South East Asia Women’s Association, and a member of the Crippled Children’s Society. She is a driver for handicapped children in Wellington "every Thursday morning.”

“I also have an interest in the Y.W.C.A. and speak to

many women’s groups,” she said. As far as personal interests and hobbies are concerned Mrs Shah is an avid collector of Chinese blue and white porcelain, and has addressed several pottery collectors’ groups about it. The porcelain will be the subject of her address to the Free China Society in Wellington next month. Mrs Shah is often called upon to judge beauty contests. Recently she has been on judging panels for the “Mrs Karori” contest. “Miss

[Wellington” (Mrs Shah chose ■Miss Jane Hansen—now ‘Miss ; International”), “Miss South I Island” and “Miss North! [island.” She and her husband have three children—two sons aged 20 and 18 and a daughter of 13, all of whom are living in Wellington. They have previously held diplomatic posts in the United States and several Asian countries, and came to New Zealand three years ago. Mr and Mrs Shah will leave Christchurch today.