Back in 2016, the Institute for Mother and Child was informed that they would be receiving a donation of €750,000. The donors were the elderly couple, Đuro and Ilinka Trifunović, people who not only did not live in Serbia but had fled far from it during the turmoil of the Balkan conflicts.
“The Institute for Mother and Child in Belgrade received a donation worth €750,000, which was bequeathed by the will of a Serbian couple from Canada, Đuro and Ilinka Trifunović, and these funds were invested in renovating several departments of this healthcare institution, as well as purchasing medical equipment,” the news read.
The Trifunović couple were originally from Kosovo in Dalmatia, from where they left for Canada after the Second World War.
– This is an unprecedented act. Something like this has not happened, at least in the last 30 years that I’ve been in healthcare – said Dr. Radoje Simić at the time.
By will, they bequeathed their life savings to sick children, which was then the largest single donation to a healthcare institution in Serbia in the last 30 years, and the largest ever received by this Institute since its establishment.
Incredible Love
The Trifunovićs were not just any couple. According to the obituary published on a Canadian posthumous farewell website, Ilinka and Đuro were in a harmonious marriage for over 55 years, and both were active members of the Serbian community in the diaspora, helping their people even during their lifetime.
Ilinka had two sisters who lived in England at the time, and she and Đuro had relatives, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, but they decided not to leave the money to family members after their death, but to Serbian children.
Thanks to them, the Institute for Mother and Child completely renovated the Department of Pediatric Pathology, the only pediatric pathology department in the Balkans.
Source: Blic Photo: Private