Jamaica’s Zara Realty Celebrates 25 Years of Giving Back to Guyanese Roots

Jamaica-based Zara Realty, one of New York’s largest providers of affordable housing, has completed its 25th annual mission providing medical care to Guyana, the home country of late Zara Realty founder George Subraj.

Son Tony Subraj continues the legacy of his father, whose Subraj Foundation has funded 60 corneal and 34 kidney transplants in Guyana, South America’s poorest country, in the last nine years. George Subraj emigrated to the U.S. from Guyana in 1971 and has built a tradition of philanthropy along with his real estate success.

“My father felt a strong need to help people and that has been instilled in our family as we carry on this vital work,” said Tony Subraj. “Meeting those whose lives were saved or whose sight was restored is incredibly humbling and reminds me that there is no greater calling in life than helping those in need.”

 

Since 1992, The Subraj Foundation has been funding sight-restoring and life-saving procedures and medicines for people who otherwise would have been without. As a result of the foundation’s generosity, Guyana’s first kidney transplant was made possible in 2008.

On their most recent mission, a team of doctors led by renowned surgeon Dr. Rahul Jindal of the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington D.C. screened more than 300 people for eye health. $40,000 worth of medical equipment was donated to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, the nation’s largest public hospital, through the Subraj Foundation.

Zara Realty, encompassing 2.6 million square feet of residential real estate, prides itself in giving back, both in Queens and in Guyana. The company provides scholarships to Guyanese students and has donated $125,000 to a computer lab at Richmond Hill High School.