The Indian Diaspora Council International honored a charitable Queens-based organization at a celebratory event in Queens last weekend. The Subraj Foundation received the commendation for providing decades of medical work in Guyana. The director of the organization said his late father George Subraj, who started the foundation in 1992, would be proud of the recognition.
“He would be ecstatic and this would motivate him to continue doing more,” said Anthony Subraj.
The honor comes as a moment of pride for Subraj, who says since taking over the organization a few years ago, he has made it a mission to continue his father’s work and follow in his footsteps.
“I am so appreciative and honestly they are recognizing my dad because he was a strong believer in giving back to the community and country that he was born in,” he added.
Subraj said his father’s philanthropic goals mirrored his passion and the community will continue to benefit from that.
“My dad’s motto was ‘do good and be good,’ and giving back to community,” he said. “He always believed in community and we are successful because we continue to invest in the community, we do business in the community, so it makes sense to keep doing what we do.”
The Subraj Foundation, and arm of Zara Realty, founded by George Subraj in 1982 has completed more than 24 medical missions in mostly rural parts of Guyana — helping conduct the first kidney transplant in the country over a decade ago and cornea transplants.
Recently completing its 26 mission, the foundation is preparating for its next one this May, when the medical team hopes to coordinate two kidney and corneal transplants, according to Subraj.
He added that the foundation will be working with local doctors to help the Guyanese government introduce legislation to facilitate medical procedures, and create more access to materials such as corneal tissues, which have to brought into the country.
“It takes the country to a new level because when my dad did the transplant it was unheard of,” said Subraj. “Now when we bring the team there, we train surgeons so they can get the knowledge and experience to eventually carry out the operations on their own, because our ultimate goal is giving them the training.”
Subraj added that his foundation will continue providing medical care to Guyana and will like to work with other local organizations with the same passion.
“We do like to partner with people to help spread education because education helps everyone and not enough is being done when there’s so much that can be done,” he said.
“So we’d like to partner with any organization that would like to help us spread knowledge.”
