Messi? Maybe I could try with Messi? – Jasmina Fajkić, a 28-year-old woman from Travnik, was thinking one afternoon late last year, coming up with a plan to raise as much money as possible for the Pediatric Ward of the Health Center in her town.
Although she had no idea how to reach the famous player of Barcelona and officially the best football player in the world, she still decided to try.
“Having Messi’s shirt, football boots or anything else at an auction sounded irrational, but still real. I contacted a friend, humanitarian Enrico Moristo who lives in Spain, and he told me he will contact the management of Barcelona. To be honest, I did not believe in success at that time, but already after several days I was notified that Leo Messi is sending his shirt-signed,” said Jasmina.
“Only a couple of days after I came up with that idea, I was going to meet Morista, to take over the shirt. I thought it would be a simple bag, but it was a big box with a nicely wrapped Messi’s shirt on which he wrote: May this serve as much as possible. I took it home and told my mum to take good care of it, to stay home and keep her eyes on the shirt,” Jasmina said, laughing.
This gave her a stimulus to contact other athletes and make auction of their equipment. Since she did not know any athletes personally, she tracked them via social networks.
“Blanka Vlašić sent me her running shoes right away. Edin DŽeko also contacted me among the first athletes, when I first published the campaign. He sent his shirt, since he always supports all actions, but he also asked whether he can help in any other way,” Jasmina recalled.
Jasmine used some little tricks on her way. For example, she reached the football player of Real Madrid Mateo Kovačić through his girlfriend, whom she found on Instagram.
“By looking at the posts, I realized that Izabel A. is his girlfriend, so I sent her a message. She read it and, unbelievably, I had Mateo’s shirt in a couple of days,” Jasmina said about her first campaign which she completed entirely by herself.
The B&H national team player Izet Hajrović donated a signed shirt and 2,000 BAM, of which she was supposed to allocate 1,000 BAM for the Pediatric Ward and asked to donate the other 1,000 BAM to one of several poor families she regularly supports.
When Jasmina published information about her campaign in media, one reader who works in Qatar contacted her and offered to get in touch with another star from Barcelona – Xavi Hernandez. The signed Xavi’s dress soon completed the auction collection.
Except for the mentioned shirts and sports footwear, the auction collection was complemented by the equipment of the best B&H tennis player Damir Dćumhur, the national basketball team of B&H, the FC Liverpool, Miralem Pjanić, Josip Kvesić, Ervin Zukanović, Krste Velkoski, Adnan Zahirović, Amer Bekić, Elmedin Kikanović, Senjamin Burić, Toni Šunjić, Edin Višća, Armin Hodžić, Avdija Vršarević, Elvedin Varupa…
Jasmine got the most money for Messi’s shirt (3,100 BAM-1,550 EUR) and for Xavi’s shirt (1,000 BAM-500 EUR), both bought by the Kuwaiti Carl Saliba.
In the end, Jasmina had a total of 14,000 BAM and she donated the entire amount to the Pediatric Ward where she has been working as an activist for three years, helping the patients to overcome disease and worries about getting money for expensive treatments easier.
(Source: fokus.ba)
