An organization that has its roots in the waste industry, Gift of Life International provides life-saving heart surgery for children around the world.
When was the Gift of Life International founded and what is its mission? Gift of Life International, Inc. (GOLI) is a 501 c 3 non-profit charitable organization that provides life-saving heart surgery for children around the world regardless of race, creed, gender or national origin. GOLI operates predominately through the network of Rotary Clubs and Districts around the world. There are 1.2 million Rotarians in 200 countries. GOLI is now developing sustainable pediatric heart programs in Uganda, El Salvador and Jamaica. It has concentrated efforts Haiti, the Philippines and Kosovo. GOLI provides surgery for over 1,000 children per year. The program was started by Robbie Donno in 1975 when the Rotary Club of Manhassett, NY partnered with the Rotary Club of Kampala, Uganda to provide live saving heart surgery on five-year old Grace Agwaru.
Why was Gift of Life International Developed? Robbie read an article in the December 1973 issue of the Rotarian Magazine about a child that needed help. It was a plea for help. Robbie presented this to the Manhasset Rotary where he was a member taking the place of his father, Dante Donno when he passed away two years earlier. Robbie felt compelled to help five-year old Grace Agwaru and her family because they had no other alternative to save their child. It would be accepted that Grace would have a short life. It took almost two years to put the project together and Grace came with her father, Sylvester, to St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn, NY for her life saving surgery. A second child, 10-year old Robinah Nakabuye, came the following year. Forty years later, GOLI has provided lifesaving surgeries for over 18,000 children.
Who are involved with the organization currently? How is the organization involved with the waste industry? Robbie Donno, Founder of GOLI, was a principal of Donno Company, Inc., which provided waste removal services for 55,000 residential and commercial customers on Long Island New York. Donno Company was a member of NSWMA when it first started. Robbie served as Chapter Chairman and was NSWMA’s Member of the Year. Donno Company was a subcontractor for Browning Ferris Industries (BFI) in projects in New York and Long Island. Rob Raylman, worked for BFI and Robbie and Rob have been friends since the late 1980s. Currently, Robbie is the Vice President of Lemcor, Inc. and partners with Armand Lembo, the former NSWMA Chapter Chairman of the New Jersey Chapter.
Rob Raylman is the Executive Director of GOLI. Rob had worked for BFI from 1987 to 1999. He was Director of New York State Government Affairs from 1987-993 and VP of BFI of New York from 1994 to 1999. Rob and Robbie had worked closely together in legislative efforts organized by NSWMA. Robbie reached out for Rob in 2008 and asked him to be the Executive Director of GOLI. Rob’s background made him the perfect person for the job. Rob has consolidated all of the independent and autonomous GOL programs into coordinated efforts that now have made a permanent impact in the countries of concentration. In Uganda, Jamaica and El Salvador, approximately 550 children will receive care this year alone. Five years ago, no children were operated on in those countries. As Rob put it, “Parents in those countries faced the certainty of attending their child’s funeral. We change the funeral to a birthday party and all the birthday parties for the rest of that child’s life.”
Pat Caruso President of Associated Refuse Haulers in Newtown Connecticut is a member of the Newtown Rotary Club. The Newtown Rotary Club responded to the needs of the residents in Newtown in the aftermath of the shootings that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary school. The Rotarians were at their best when things were worst in their town. Pat and Robbie had met at Waste Expo seven or eight years ago, being presenters on a panel discussing public image.
Robbie, Pat and members of the Newtown Rotary had a discussion about providing surgery on a child through GOLI. In the process of helping a child, it was hoped that there develop something uplifting in a town that had been so devastated. In January of 2014, Genesis Fuentes came to Newtown from Belize, a four-year old girl whose life was changed by the Rotarians there. They decided to challenge other Rotarians to help make Newtown a community that gives life and since then 37 children have received heart surgery through the GOLI. Over the years, many members of the waste industry have kindly donated to Gift of Life. Some of the member’s budget providing one child a surgery each year.
How many children are sponsored per year? What types of surgeries are funded through the organization? 1,000 children throughout the world. Children come from all over. GOLI provides open heart surgery and catheterization procedures that correct congenital heart defects commonly known as “holes in the heart’. The children have come from 70 different countries. While GOL chapters work together with the coordination of Gift of Life International, they are really autonomous. Everything effort is done by agreement and volunteered participation.
How does the selection process work? The children come to GOLI through a variety of different sources. Some come through our Web site, many come through Rotary clubs around the world, some come from doctors who are seeking help for their patients. Once we receive a request for help, we ask for updated patient medical records, a current patient history, ekg, echo. X-ray. We will refer those records to the most likely hospital/doctors that could help the child. All selections are made by the doctors and or hospitals. Each of the hospitals that are involved with GOLI are certified pediatric heart centers with a proven record. All the teams we send to other countries for training missions are all certified in pediatric heart surgery.
In terms of development programs, there has to be existing infrastructure to build on. We will ask the hospital facility to commit to at least a five-year program to invest in building a pediatric heart program. We will ask the government to participate in developing a program and we will start a local NGO, that will exist for continued support of the program and will enlist support from commerce and industry on behalf of the program. The idea is not only to train the healthcare professionals to be proficient but also to build self-sustaining program, which will take ongoing funding. The hospital, the government and the NGO are part of a Memorandum of Understanding with GOLI so each partner in the development of the program makes a commitment that will lead to success.
How many children have gone through the program? 18,000. To give a little more perspective, the 18,000 are done one at a time. Each is an individual with different circumstances. Each brings with them their own beauty.
What would you say is the greatest success (story) of the organization? Any non-profit that has survived over a period of 40 years is a success story. Its greatest success, to me, is that it is still in its infancy. It will not be long before GOLI programs will be providing surgeries for 2,000 children a year, then 5,000 per year. Its growth has been a grass roots effort, one at a time.
Each child having a successful operation is also a great success story. Two children that have been helped by our Newtown Challenge, Genesis of Belize and Bezalel of the Philippines are the greatest for us in Newtown. Genesis had about six to 12 months to live. Today, she is a healthy, vibrant three-year old that probably can outrun all of us. Little Bezalel, who was considered not to be “worthy” of the operation because he was blind and deaf, now is able to see and hear because of the kindness and love of life of all those in our community who helped with his operation and examines
Does the organization have any plans for the future? Yes, as long as there is a need for children with congenital heart disease, Rotary will be there to help. GOLI is currently being sought after to provide organization in partnership with other non-profits that provide similar services. Our roots in Rotary gives us an instant army of 1.2 million members in 200 countries. So we are unlimited in what a group like that can accomplish. Our partnerships with our relationships with UN Ambassadors is expanding. There is potential in growth in that area. GOLI just provided surgery for a Syrian refugee child at the Bambini Gesu Oespadali at the Vatican. It is not inconceivable that the State Department might not be a partner with us at some point. The ability to expand this program is limited only by our capability to dream of the possibilities. Two words have been prominent in the 40 years—“We can”.
For more information go to www.GiftofLifeInternational.org.
Sidebar
Rotary International/Gift of Life: The Facts
- Rotary is an international business and service organization of whose motto is “Service above Self”.
- Rotary is comprised of more than 1.2 million business and professional people in 30,000 Rotary Clubs in 200 countries.
- Rotary initiated the worldwide polio eradication program called Polio Plus which has inoculated more than 2 billion children. The world is now 99.9% polio free.
- Gift of Life is a Rotary program whose mission is to promote world peace by providing lifesaving open-heart surgery to needy children throughout the world.
- Gift of Life started in 1975 when the Rotary Club of Manhasset partnered with the Rotary Club of Kampala, Uganda to provide surgery for 5-year old Grace Agwaru.
- Gift of Life has operated on over 17,000 children from 70 different countries through the network of Rotary.
- Gift of Life programs currently provide surgery for in excess of 1,000 children per year around the world.
Additional Facts
- In 1983, First Lady Nancy Reagan brought two Korean Children to St. Francis Hospital through the Gift of Life program. One of the children, Lee Kil Woo, then four-years, old was adopted in the United States shortly after his operation. His American name is Brett Halvorson.
- Both Grace Agwaru (the first child) and Brett Halvorson, (Lee Kil Woo) are actively involved in helping children with congenital heart defects as Global Ambassadors for the Gift of Life.
- Gift of Life is currently developing self-sustaining pediatric heart programs through its skills transfer program in Uganda, El Salvador, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. Each program will be able to provide lifesaving surgery to 200-300 children per year once the development has been completed. An additional development project will commence each year in a new country. This year, over 450 children have received surgery in Uganda, El Salvador and Jamaica.