“I am very proud to be an athlete in these times, among many greats who have come forward to bring people together at a time when we are apart,” Novak Djokovic said in 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic strained healthcare systems around the world. In Serbia, Djokovic and his wife, Jelena, donated €1 million to help hospitals obtain ventilators, clinical monitors and CT scanners. It was a moment when the influence of sport reached far beyond the court, as athletes around the world began asking what they could do in a crisis that had brought everyday life to a standstill. For Djokovic, the donation would become part of a much wider effort, one that drew in corporate partners and individual donors and raised a further US$200,000 in support.
What Djokovic’s €1 million helped buy during COVID-19
When the pandemic disrupted everyday life in March 2020, the Novak Djokovic Foundation had to rethink how it supported children, parents and educators, but the pressure on Serbia’s hospitals created another immediate need that the couple felt they could not ignore.Novak and Jelena made global headlines when they personally donated €1 million, around US$1.12 million at the time, to help Serbia’s hospitals get the equipment they desperately needed.They were among many athletes, celebrities and public figures who stepped up during the pandemic, but Djokovic wanted to make sure his contribution went where it could do the most good. To figure that out, he reached out to people around the world for advice on how best to get help to those who needed itThe foundation’s team then worked to identify the equipment hospitals required, making sure deliveries arrived as quickly as possible while meeting quality standards and the needs of individual healthcare institutions. Its 2020 review recorded 17 ventilators, 54 clinical monitors, two high-quality CT scanners, mobile equipment for disinfecting surfaces and syringe pumps among the items delivered during the year.The foundation also distributed 100,000 health packages to first-graders across Serbia, while directing more than €40,000 towards the General Hospital in Novi Pazar when the town faced a particularly difficult period during the pandemic. Ventilators and monitors also formed part of the support provided to hospitals, including a contribution to the General Hospital in Kruševac.Djokovic explained why he felt athletes had a responsibility to help when communities were struggling during the crisis, expressing admiration for those who used their visibility and resources to bring people together.“I am very proud to be an athlete in these times, among many greats who have come forward to bring people together at a time when we are apart—to bring hope, community, and inspire others in the same way to use our platforms for good.”The couple’s contribution became the starting point for a wider relief effort, with corporate partners and individual supporters providing a further US$200,000 worth of donations. Overall, pandemic assistance channelled through the foundation exceeded €1.2 million, with documented medical equipment deliveries valued at more than €1.023 million.
The pandemic changed their work, but not their mission
The Novak Djokovic Foundation was established to improve children’s lives in Serbia, with early childhood education becoming its central mission as Novak and Jelena recognised how many children lacked access to quality preschool learning. Their work had already produced tangible results before the pandemic, with the foundation opening its thirteenth School of Life in Ljukovo at the beginning of 2020. The new preschool created 96 places for children aged three to six in an area where more than 200 children had been waiting for enrolment.When COVID-19 disrupted everyday life, however, the foundation had to pause much of its in-person work, including planned preschool projects, while the couple remained committed to helping children, parents and teachers. Rather than wait for normality to return, the team moved educational programmes and parenting workshops online, giving families access to learning materials and practical advice during lockdown.Construction work resumed as restrictions eased, while the foundation continued preparing new preschools and supporting families through its existing programmes. The pandemic changed how the organisation worked, but its purpose remained the same: helping children from vulnerable backgrounds access the care, education and opportunities they needed to develop.
Why Djokovic and Jelena built their foundation around children
The pandemic response was possible because the couple already had an organisation with experience in supporting vulnerable communities, having established the Novak Djokovic Foundation in 2007 before eventually concentrating its resources on early childhood education.The foundation initially provided broad humanitarian assistance in Serbia, supporting schools, churches and families facing poverty or illness, but a meeting with UNICEF in 2012 helped Novak and Jelena identify a more specific problem they wanted to address.They learned that more than half of Serbian children were not attending preschool or other early education programmes, while participation in the poorest rural communities fell below 10 per cent. Many children therefore started primary school without access to the learning opportunities, facilities and support that could help them develop alongside their peers.Both Novak and Jelena had grown up in economically difficult, war-affected Serbia during the 1990s, and Novak has often acknowledged how fortunate he was to have a family that supported his ambitions from an early age. They wanted other children to have comparable opportunities, regardless of their family’s financial circumstances or where they happened to live.The foundation consequently made early childhood development its central mission, concentrating on the period from birth to age seven, when learning and development can shape a child’s later opportunities. Its motto, “Believe in their dreams”, reflects the idea that children should have the support to discover their abilities rather than have their futures restricted by circumstances beyond their control.
How the foundation’s work has grown beyond emergency relief
The couple’s work has since continued to centre on early education, with the foundation building or reconstructing 58 preschools and investing more than €15 million in programmes that have positively affected over 55,000 children.Its wider work includes training teachers, helping municipalities transform unused buildings into preschools, supporting parents through workshops and digital resources, and collaborating with organisations including UNICEF, the World Bank and Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child.The foundation also relies on public support to expand these programmes, while Novak and Jelena cover administrative and operational expenses personally or through an endowment, allowing public donations to go directly towards programme delivery.Even during the difficult year of 2020, the couple continued matching public generosity with their own contributions. The foundation’s annual Season of Giving campaign collected €108,000 (~$140,000) from more than 1,000 supporters across over 30 countries, after which Novak and Jelena matched the amount to create a total of €216,000 (~$280,000) for new preschools in the Serbian villages of Vajska and Ljubis, helping provide early education for 105 children.The pandemic donation remains one of the clearest examples of how that work can extend beyond the foundation’s usual focus, with the couple using an established organisation to direct emergency assistance towards hospitals while keeping their longer-term educational commitments moving. For Djokovic, the €1 million contribution was not a separate philanthropic gesture detached from his other work, but part of a wider effort to give children and families in Serbia access to the support they need during both ordinary times and major crises.
