By Dr. Fevzi Kortay (Dr. Fozz) — Founder and President, Global Human Development Foundation | ISHRS Full Member | ECAMS Member
Some foundations are born in boardrooms. The Global Human Development Foundation was born in the cardiac surgery wards of Istanbul — in the silence between a successful bypass operation and the moment a family asked how they would ever pay for it.
From Emergency Medicine to Cardiovascular Surgery: Where It All Began
My medical career began where most doctors are tested hardest: in accident and emergency. There is no environment more honest than an A&E department. Every decision matters immediately. Every life that comes through those doors is somebody’s entire world.
It was during those formative years as an emergency physician that I first encountered the reality that would shape everything I would later do — not just as a surgeon, but as a human being. I saw patients who needed care but couldn’t access it. Parents who chose between their children’s medication and their family’s food. I saw people suffer not because medicine had no answer, but because they had no money.
That feeling never left me.
I went on to specialise in cardiovascular surgery, one of the most demanding and consequential disciplines in all of medicine. Over the course of my surgical career in Istanbul, I performed more than 1,000 cardiovascular bypass operations per year, alongside over 2,000 peripheral vascular angiographies and bypass procedures, including high-risk aortic aneurysm and aortic dissection operations. I worked alongside some of Turkey’s — and the world’s — most distinguished cardiovascular surgeons, operating at institutions where the standard of care rivals the best in Europe and North America.
But the numbers never erased the faces. The patients I remember most are not the most complex cases. They are the ones who left the hospital recovered — and then couldn’t afford to come back for follow-up. The children whose parents came to me in private, asking if I could help with a procedure their insurance wouldn’t cover.
The Decision That Changed Everything
At some point, a question settled in my mind that I couldn’t ignore: What is the point of surgical excellence if it only reaches people who can afford it?
I wanted to build something different. A system — however informal at first — where I could provide free surgical procedures and operations to families who genuinely needed them. Where children with cardiac conditions could receive the intervention they required regardless of their parents’ income. Where patients with haematological disorders could access bone marrow transplantation through the network of private university hospitals in Istanbul, facilities offering levels of medical advancement that exceed what is available in most countries in the world.
To do that sustainably, I needed time — and I needed resources that I could direct without institutional constraints.
A Strategic Shift: Hair Restoration as a Path to Greater Freedom
The decision to pursue specialist training in hair restoration surgery was deliberate and strategic, not a departure from my mission but a means of advancing it. Hair restoration, as a largely elective and private-pay specialty, offered something cardiovascular surgery could not: the flexibility to structure my own time and generate the financial independence needed to fund charitable work on a meaningful scale.
As Medical Director of FUEHUB Hair Restoration Clinic in Cyprus, I practice advanced FUE and DHI techniques — but I have never stopped being a cardiovascular surgeon at heart. The clinic is a vehicle. The mission is the work I do beyond it.
Through MAID Medicals, a B2B medical supply company operating across Europe and the Middle East in surgical instruments, aesthetic products, and medical-grade equipment, I built a second commercial pillar. A third company handles the import and export of food and beverage products. Together, these enterprises became the financial engine behind my charitable ambitions — and, importantly, they became something more: a source of economic empowerment for women who needed financial independence and a structured pathway to earn it.
The Scholarships That Started Quietly
As a British Cypriot with deep roots on the island, I have always been acutely aware of the struggles facing international students — particularly those arriving from sub-Saharan Africa to study in Cyprus. Many arrive with enormous academic potential and extraordinary personal sacrifice behind them, only to find themselves overwhelmed by tuition fees, living costs, and the cumulative weight of financial uncertainty.
I began funding their education. Not as a formal programme at first — simply as a response to an obvious need I was in a position to meet. Over time, I helped more than 75 African students cover their university tuition fees and, in many cases, their rent and living expenses. I watched them graduate. I watched them go home and build careers and families. That is a different kind of operation entirely — but the outcome, a human life restored to its full potential, feels the same.
Why GHDF? Why Now?
All of this work — the free cardiac operations, the paediatric cardiovascular referrals, the bone marrow transplantation arrangements, the women’s employment initiatives, the student scholarships — was happening. But it was happening informally, driven entirely by one person’s capacity and personal network.
That is not a sustainable model. And it is not a model that invites others to participate.
The Global Human Development Foundation (GHDF), registered in Estonia and operating across more than 30 countries, exists to professionalise and scale what I had been doing alone. It exists so that donors, institutions, corporate partners, and fellow professionals can join a structure with governance, accountability, and a clear mandate — and multiply the impact far beyond what any individual could achieve.
With GHDF, the free surgical operations become part of a formal health programme. The student scholarships become a recognised education initiative. The women’s employment pathway becomes a documented women’s economic empowerment project. And the community development work that quietly accompanies all of it becomes measurable, reportable, and fundable.
GHDF does not exist because I have stopped believing in individual action. It exists because I have seen enough to know that the problems we face — preventable deaths, educational exclusion, economic marginalisation — are bigger than any one surgeon’s operating schedule.
What We Stand For
GHDF operates across four interconnected pillars:
- Health — Access to surgical care, preventive medicine, and specialist interventions for underserved communities, with a particular focus on paediatric cardiac conditions and haematological disorders.
- Education — University scholarship programmes and educational access initiatives, with proven results across more than 75 beneficiaries in Cyprus alone.
- Women’s Empowerment — Economic inclusion programmes that provide women with the skills, opportunities, and financial structures to achieve independence.
- Community Development — Locally led initiatives that build capacity within communities rather than creating dependency on external intervention.
Every programme is co-designed with the communities it serves. Every result is tracked and reported. And the goal, always, is for the community to own and run the programme itself — because that is the only version of success that lasts.
A Foundation Built on Evidence, Not Sentiment
I am a surgeon. I was trained to operate on evidence, to measure outcomes, to adapt when the data demands it. I bring the same discipline to philanthropy.
The Global Human Development Foundation is not a vehicle for good intentions. It is a professionally governed, ethically structured foundation with the oversight mechanisms, reporting standards, and operational discipline that major donors and institutional partners rightly expect.
If you have read this far, you understand something essential about why GHDF exists: not because the world lacks charitable organisations, but because the world lacks enough surgeons willing to build one from scratch — with their own hands, their own resources, and over a decade of knowing exactly what happens when access to care is denied.
Get Involved
GHDF’s work is funded by individuals, corporates, and foundations who share the belief that health, education, and economic opportunity are not privileges — they are rights.
Whether you wish to donate, partner, volunteer, or simply learn more, we welcome your involvement.
Visit GHDF Foundation to find out how you can be part of the work.
Dr. Fevzi Kortay (Dr. Fozz) is the Founder and President of the Global Human Development Foundation. A British Cypriot cardiovascular surgeon by training, he is an ISHRS Full Member and a Member of the European College of Medical Aesthetics and Surgery (ECAMS). He practices full-time as Medical Director of FUEHUB Hair Restoration Clinic, Cyprus, and is the founding force behind GHDF — a foundation he restored from dormant status in 2024 and rebuilt around a community-led model.
Related Reading:
- GHDF Health Programmes
- GHDF Education Initiatives
- Women’s Empowerment at GHDF
- FUEHUB Hair Restoration Clinic
- MAID Medicals — B2B Medical Supplies
Tags: GHDF, Global Human Development Foundation, Dr Fevzi Kortay, Dr Fozz, ISHRS, ECAMS, cardiovascular surgery, hair restoration Cyprus, nonprofit health foundation, medical philanthropy, paediatric cardiac surgery, bone marrow transplantation Istanbul, women empowerment, African student scholarships Cyprus, FUE hair transplant Cyprus, FUEHUB, MAID Medicals, humanitarian surgery, healthcare access, charity foundation
