A gift that goes straight to the heart

Harry Bajraktari and his family donate $75,000 to Gift of Life International for a mission which will save 25 Kosova children, who are born with heart defects

By Albana Krasniqi

The end of the year often reminds us of our achievements, challenges, shortcomings, good deeds, and everything that makes us human. It is also a time for gifts and generosity.

Harry Bajraktari chose once again to end the year in a remarkable way. His extraordinary gift will bring joy in the hearts of many families in Kosova, whose children were born with heart defects and lack the opportunity and the availability of lifesaving surgeries.

The funds donated by him and his family will save not one or two, but at least twenty-five children in Kosova.

Their donation to the Gift of Life International will sponsor an entire medical team, who will travel to Kosova and provide free heart surgeries to children who would have otherwise died at an early age due to their curable heart defects. 

Reportedly, 400 children are born every year in Kosova with heart defects. Due to medical and economic limitations, the country cannot offer them the lifesaving surgery interventions they desperately need. Here enters the Gift of Life International with which I have had the honor to work for years. The organization provides the help needed to save children around the world and Kosova has been on our map for some time now.

On December 28th, Harry and Lisa Bajraktari invited the leaders of the Gift of Life International, at their home in New York. In the presence of his large family, he announced the generous donation of $75,000 to support the work of the organization in Kosova.

On behalf of the family, it was Harry’s grandson, Alexander Bajraktari, who handed over the check to the leaders of the organization. It was a beautiful and moving moment (captured by the photo above).

This is not the first time that Harry Bajraktari has supported the Gift of Life organization, in our work to save the lives of hundreds of children in Kosova. Indeed, Harry has been the largest sponsor in the Albanian-American community of the Gift of Life International.

With this recent major donation, he wanted to save as many children as possible in Kosova, but he wanted also that the gesture serves to educate his own children and grandchildren, so that the spirit of giving and sharing is inherited by them, just like he himself was educated and inherited it from his own father, Mete Bajraktari.

This is how the best of our values are passed on from generation to generation.

On behalf of our organization, I thanked him and confirmed that the donation will sponsor a fully equipped medical mission in the new year 2022, which will travel to Kosova and operate the little hearts of at least 25 children.

The founder of the organization, Robbie Donno expressed his gratitude to Harry Bajraktari, during their meeting, and said that these funds are the only hope to so many families who desperately wait for their children to be rescued. For some of them in Kosova, now, help is on the way.  

From the left, Robbie Dono, founder of the organization, Lisa and Harry Bajraktari.
Leaders of the Gift of Life International, guests of Bajraktari family in New York.