Changing the World -€“ From a Walk-In Closet

It all started with the photograph of a little boy named Kenan. Elissa Montanti, 57, was meeting with the Bosnian ambassador to find out how to get more school supplies to children in need when she discovered that there were more pressing matters at hand.

The boy in the picture had stepped on a Bosnian landmine and lost both of his arms and a leg. Once the ambassador put Kenan’s photo and letter in her hand, Montanti’s life changed forever. She knew she had to help.

That day back in 1996 led Montanti to start what is now the Global Medical Relief Fund. The nonprofit helps international children who have been seriously burned or injured from war or natural disasters by bringing them to the U.S. and providing them with free medical care and reconstructive surgery. To date, she’s helped more than 100 children in more than 11 countries, all from her Staten Island home office that’s actually a walk-in closet. Kenan now helps Montanti run the charity and lives in her basement with his girlfriend.

Here, Montanti talks to PINK about what led her to create the charity, goals she still wants to achieve and how music makes her world go round.

PINK: What’s the secret to your success?

Elissa Montanti: Absolute persistence. When things got really dark and funds were low, I’d lie in bed at night and think, “How am I going to help the next child?” These children come back for follow-ups until they’re 21. I’d think, “How am I going bring them back now that they’ve outgrown their arm, leg or eye prosthetic and they need surgery?” That’s what haunted me more than anything, and that made me not give up.

PINK: What adversity did you face?

EM: A lot of doors were closed in my face because we help children from outside the country. A lot of people didn’t like that. I persisted by speaking anytime someone wanted me to speak or do anything to promote the charity. I didn’t give up in my head – I kept moving forward.

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Bonus PINK Link: All proceeds from our this year’s Spring Into Ownership events went to the GMRF. 

By Caroline Cox

“Let no one ever come to you without
leaving better and happier.” Mother Teresa