Meet Elissa Montanti, a 68 year old woman from Staten Island, New York, who has dedicated the past two decades of her life to helping children injured in war and disaster zones around the world access life-changing medical treatment in America.
Elissa’s mission began in 1997. Following the tragic deaths of her mother, childhood sweetheart and grandmother in quick succession, Elissa suffered paralysing anxiety. When a friend asked her to help with a fundraiser for children in Bosnia, Elissa decided it was time to reconnect with the world and began collecting toys and school supplies. Not one to do things by halves, Elissa scheduled a meeting with Bosnia's ambassador to the United Nations to find out how she could do more. This meeting changed the course of her life
When the ambassador shared a letter from a young Bosnian boy named Kenan, begging for help to replace the three lost limbs he’d lost to a landmine, Elissa knew she’d found her purpose. "In that moment, something changed. I left the United Nations and started making phone calls. In 24 hours, I had an airline, hospital and prosthetic company set up to help him." Within two months, Kenan and his mother landed in New York for surgery and prosthetics, and lived with Elissa in her one-bedroom condo while he recovered.
After this experience, Elissa flew to Bosnia to find other children to help. “I fell in love with the kids. The anxiety wasn't gone, but my desire to help them was much greater." With an uncanny skill for rallying support, Elissa returned home and launched the Global Medical Relief Fund from her walk-in closet. Over the past 20 years, she’s helped more than 400 children from 50 countries travel to America for medical care. She's created an expansive network of charitable doctors and volunteers and founded the ‘Dare to Dream House’, a residence for children and their guardians to live during treatment.
Today, against all odds, including a global pandemic, Elissa continues to give young amputees, burn survivors and victims of war and violent crimes, hope for a future that they would otherwise not have access to.
The impact of the medical treatment is monumental. We're empowering them because we're giving them back what they lost. We're giving them a chance to stand on their own, walk, write, go to school and to contribute to society.
