Jehona Marku Podvorica

“One person’s decision to be an organ donor may help save or enhance more than fifty lives.” 

Prishtina native Jehona Marku-Podvorica had just graduated from a nursing program at a local medical high school and was studying medicine at the University of Prishtina when the war in Kosova erupted and she was forced to flee her home. Thankfully, her dual citizenship enabled her to work with Mercy Corps in a Stenkovec-refugee camp in Macedonia, where as a registered nurse she helped care for pediatric patients. Shortly after, Marku-Podvorica moved to the United States and began working with the Interfaith Refugee Ministry in New Haven, Connecticut, providing care to new refugees suffering from mental health issues and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Later, she was the outreach coordinator for a very successful PTSD conference held for Kosovar Albanian refugees in Waterbury, Connecticut.