GEORGE SUBRAJ

George Subraj, the fourth son of Shobhraj and Tatri of Bel Air, Georgetown, Guyana, left the shores of the Caribbean in 1971 having borrowed $850 from relatives. Settling in with friends in New York City he began a rigorous regime of work and study. After years of toil at various jobs and committed hours of study he was promoted and transferred as an electrical appliance salesman in Queens, New York.

Sharpening his skills as salesman walking from door to door, office to office, George’s only difficulty was finding clean and safe housing in the violent, aggressive neighborhood. Whenever the apartment was clean it was over-priced and whenever it was affordable it was unsafe, deadly. Ironically, a 44-apartment building was up for sale in Jamaica, Queens and with the financial assistance of two of his brothers, and now executive partners, Ken Subraj and Jay Sobhraj, they began the ZARA empire in 1981-2. To date the business boasts almost 60-apartment and condo complexes located in Queens and Nassau County in New York. Today his adage of clean, safe, comfortable and affordable housing has literally transformed the rental market with Zara housing tenants for more than 25 years. From one generation to another they continue to live under his magnanimous care and protection.

As a philanthropist, George always felt that good giving is divine. Under the umbrella organization Guyana Watch and as Vice-President, George’s years of humanitarian commitment stretches back to the early 90s. But it was not until April, 2008, that his name became a household word when he pioneered Guyana’s First Kidney Transplant with a team of doctors from Walter Reed Army Medical Centre of Washington, DC, saving the life of a seventeen-year-old boy, Munesh Mangal.

He has since helped innumerable other individuals and groups in his giant strides of philanthropy especially targeting the poor and less fortunate. He has donated the Zara state-of-the-art computer training center at the Saraswattie Vidya Niketan Secondary School, Guyana; furnished the hall of the Laxmi Narayan temples in Orlando; this is apart from the fact that he has also installed elevators at the other Laxmi Narayan, Liberty Avenue and Prem Bhakti Mandirs, Queens. Along with his brothers Ken and Jay they have also installed similar computer centers at the Cove and John Ashram, Guyana, Benjamin N. Cardozo High School and at the American Sevashram Sangha among many other contributions and donations.

Similarly, the medical and business community showered George with rich accolades when he introduced pediatric heart surgeries to his native homeland, Guyana, saving the lives of eight children, whose parents were unable to raise the huge sum for the same surgery overseas. All of this he has done as the President of Zara saying quite simply “Good giving is divine. The good Lord has given me more than I actually need for happy living so giving back to the poor and disadvantaged is my way of thanking God.”

George Subraj passed away in November 2016. Since then his family and friends have been working hard to honor his memory by continuing philanthropic work in his name.