COVID-19 hero: How Novak Djokovic donated €1m during one of humanity’s worst crises – the ventilators, CT scanners and medical equipment he helped buy

Novak Djokovic of Serbia poses with the trophy after winning the men’s singles final match against Alex De Minaur of Australia at the China Open tennis tournament in Beijing, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim) “I am very proud to be an athlete in these times, among the many greats who have come to bring people together at a time when we are apart,” said Novak Djokovic in 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic strained health systems around the world. In Serbia, Djokovic and his wife Jelena donated 1 million euros to help hospitals get ventilators, clinical monitors and CT scanners. It was a moment when the impact of sport reached far beyond the courts, as athletes around the world began to ask what they could do in a crisis that brought daily life to a standstill. For Djokovic, the donation would become part of a much broader effort that attracted corporate partners and individual donors to raise an additional $200,000 in support.

What Djokovic’s €1 million helped buy during COVID-19

When the pandemic disrupted daily life in March 2020, the Novak Djokovic Foundation had to rethink how it supports children, parents and educators, but the pressure on Serbian 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 euros, approximately 1.12 million US dollars at the time, to help Serbian hospitals get desperately needed equipment.They were among the 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 it out, he reached out to people around the world for advice on how best to get help to those in needThe foundation team then worked to identify the necessary hospital equipment so that the supplies arrived as quickly as possible while meeting the quality standards and needs of individual medical facilities. His 2020 review among the items delivered during the year, it noted 17 ventilators, 54 clinical monitors, two high-quality CT scanners, mobile surface disinfection equipment and injection pumps.The foundation also distributed 100,000 health packs to first-graders across Serbia and channeled more than €40,000 to the General Hospital in Novi Pazar when the city faced a particularly difficult period during the pandemic. Support for hospitals also included ventilators and monitors, including a contribution to the General Hospital in Kruševac.Djokovic explained why he felt athletes had a responsibility to help when communities struggled during the crisis, and expressed his 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 the many greats who have come 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 making additional donations worth $200,000. In total, pandemic aid provided through the Foundation exceeded €1.2 million, with documented deliveries of medical equipment reaching a value of more than €1.023 million.

The pandemic has changed their work, but not their mission

The Novak Djokovic Foundation was established to improve the lives of children in Serbia, with early childhood education as its main mission because Novak and Jelena recognized how many children do not have access to quality preschool education. Their work brought tangible results even before the pandemic, the foundation opened its thirteenth School of Life in Ljukov at the beginning of 2020. The new kindergarten created 96 places for children aged three to six in an area where more than 200 children were waiting to be enrolled.However, when COVID-19 disrupted daily life, the foundation had to suspend much of its personal work, including planned preschool projects, while the couple remained committed to helping children, parents and teachers. Instead of waiting for normalcy to return, the team moved educational programs and parenting workshops online, giving families access to learning materials and practical advice during the lockdown.Construction work resumed after restrictions were eased, while the foundation continued to prepare new kindergartens and support families through existing programs. The pandemic has changed how the organization works, but its purpose has remained the same: to help children from vulnerable backgrounds access the care, education and opportunities they need to thrive.

Why Djokovic and Jelena built their foundations on children

The pandemic response was possible because the couple already had an organization with experience supporting vulnerable communities, having established the Novak Djokovic Foundation in 2007 before eventually focusing its resources on early childhood education.The foundation initially provided broad humanitarian aid in Serbia, supporting schools, churches and families facing poverty or disease, but a meeting with UNICEF in 2012 helped Novak and Jelena identify a more specific problem they wanted to address.They found that more than half of Serbian children do not attend preschool or other early education programs, while participation in the poorest rural communities has fallen below 10 percent. Many children therefore entered primary school without access to the educational opportunities, facilities and support that could help them develop alongside their peers.Both Novak and Jelena grew up in an economically difficult, war-torn Serbia in the 1990s, and Novak often acknowledged how lucky 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 situation or where they happened to live.The foundation subsequently made early childhood development its core mission, focusing on the period from birth to seven years, when learning and development can shape a child’s later opportunities. Her motto “Believe in your dreams” reflects the idea that children should be supported in discovering their abilities, rather than having their futures limited by circumstances beyond their control.

How the foundation’s work went beyond emergency aid

Since then, the pair’s work has continued to focus on early education, with the foundation building or renovating 58 kindergartens and investing more than €15 million in programs that have positively impacted more than 55,000 children.His wider work includes training teachers, helping municipalities convert disused buildings into kindergartens, supporting parents through workshops and digital resources, and working with organizations such as UNICEF, the World Bank and Harvard University’s Center for Child Development.The foundation also relies on public support to expand these programs, while Novak and Jelena cover administrative and operational costs personally or through the foundation, allowing public donations to go directly to program implementation.Even during a difficult 2020, the couple continued to connect public generosity with their own contributions. The foundation’s annual Season of Giving campaign raised €108,000 (~$140,000) from more than 1,000 supporters in over 30 countries, after which Novak and Jelena matched the same amount to create a total of €216,000 (~$280,000) for new preschools in Serbian and L5ju early childhood villages.Pandemic giving remains one of the clearest examples of how this work can transcend the foundation’s usual focus, with the couple using an established organization to direct emergency aid to hospitals while keeping their long-term educational commitments moving. For Djokovic, the €1 million contribution was not a stand-alone philanthropic gesture separate from his other work, but part of a wider effort to give children and families in Serbia access to the support they need in both normal times and major crises.