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Chapter 32. Eminent Personalities
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In 1922 A.D. Meghjibhai moved to Nairobi. There in September 1922, he opened an independent business working as a door-to-door salesman. In 1929 A.D. he joined in partnership with Premchand Vrajpal Shah. They started a factory to produce tanning extract from wattle tree bark, located in Thika, which proved to be a gold mine.
In 1936 A.D. he was the chairman of the fund raising committee for relief of famine in Halar. In 1943 A.D. during the disastrous Bengal famine he was the treasurer of the famine relief fund.
In 1952 A.D. he started a financial business, Guarantee Discount Company. It was a high-risk business. He suffered from defaults, but he made a point of not pursuing his debtors into the court but rather wrote off the bad debts.
At the age of 49 in 1953 A.D. he retired. Instead idling away the time he devoted himself to the service of humanity in different way. He started charitable activities and founded various projects for social welfare and promotion of education.
In 1948 he founded the Meghji Pethraj Charitable Trust in Jamnagar. The work of the Charitable Trust was to improve the conditions of the poor people of Saurastra particularly in the fields of education and health, and also to make provision for emergency relief works in times of natural calamities.
The educational fields included nursery schools, primary schools, girls' schools and libraries for villages. He established scholarships for school and college education. He built hostels for the students. In the health field he founded many dispensaries and hospitals.
In April 1955 A.D. the foundation stone for the MP Shah Medical College was laid in Jamnagar. He donated ten
