Analyst lends hand to refugees
Helps 28 to settle in U.S.
Publication: Chicago Sun-Times
Date: May 1, 1999
Author: NEIL STEINBERG
Section: NEWS
Edition: LATE SPORTS FINAL
Page: 12
Word Count: 564
Wall Street analyst Anthony Elgindy was on vacation in Hawaii, sitting on the beach at Maui, watching his three children play in the surf, when he realized he had to do something about the tragedy unfolding in Kosovo. "Seeing the kids so happy, thinking about how the market is at record highs, people are making millions of dollars, and nobody is doing anything," said Elgindy, 31, explaining the moment he decided to try to use some of the money earned from his Pacific Equity Investigations to help fellow Muslims in Kosovo.
Elgindy is arranging for 28 Muslim refugees to come to the United States, paying for their transportation and helping set up their living arrangements. Ten will settle in California; the other 18 will join other refugees expected to settle soon in Chicago.
The group coming here includes 10 children, ages 3 to 17, from three families whose parents are missing, and their 91-year-old grandmother.
Elgindy, who grew up in the western suburbs and graduated from Hinsdale Central High School, passed through Chicago on Friday on his way from Macedonia to his home in San Diego.
In addition to bringing people over, Elgindy said he tried to document Serb activities by videotaping over the border using a night-vision camera.
"It's incredibly sad," he said, speaking of children so traumatized they could not speak. Trying to convey the nightmare described to him in the camps, he referred to the Colorado high school shooting.
"Littleton was a terrible tragedy, but take that incident and have it occur five times a day, for a year," he said. "That's Kosovo."
Also arriving here Friday on a separate flight was Chicagoan Anna Memetaj, who contacted Elgindy through his Web site and went along with him to Macedonia, searching for her three younger sisters.
"What a wonderful man," said Memetaj, owner of the European Day Spa in Printers Row. She was able to bring back her sister, Shepkia, 31, and her sister's daughter Baserta, 2.
The pair sneaked out of a refugee camp and took shelter in the town of Tetivo. They were able to leave on tourist visas because they held Yugoslav passports. A third sister, Sofije, was found safe with her five children in Albania. A fourth couldn't be found and was assumed to be somewhere in Kosovo.
Memetaj said Elgindy's help was vital after they were thrown out of the U.S. Embassy in Macedonia. "We went there to get visas, and they treated us like criminals," she said. "Tony said he would make some calls, write some letters, and he took care of it."
The U.S. State Department would not comment on any aspect of the matter.
The pair said they are expecting a total of 30 visas any day now. Elgindy said he is hoping that others follow his example and is not concerned that the U.S. government might disapprove of citizens such as himself becoming, in effect, private relief and relocation agencies.
"Why would they do that?" he said. "I was in the camps. There is no U.S. presence. If U.S. citizens want to help, let them help."
Kosovo refugee Shepkia Ferataj (left) and her daughter Baserta, 2, leave the Midway Airport terminal Friday with Ferataj's sister Anna Memetaj (right) and a friend, Aleana Hiles. Anthony Elgindy hugs his sister Mona during a stopover at O'Hare Airport on Friday, en route to San Diego from Macedonia. See related stories.
PETER BARRERAS; ASSOCIATED PRESS; RICH HEIN
Copyright 1999 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc. |
