New clinic next step at Kenya orphanage

Sunday, November 30, 2008

By STEVE DOYLE

Times Staff Writer steve.doyle@htimes.com

Cullman's Steve James looking forward to facility

Steve James got a not-so-subtle reminder last week why his humanitarian work in Kenya is so important.

A hungry 3-year-old girl was left at the gate of James' Marindi Children's Home of Grace Orphanage, which has become a rare bright spot in one of the world's poorest places.

Even though the 103-bed orphanage was full, James took the little girl in. Saving kids from starvation, disease and other sad endings is why the Cullman resident opened the orphanage - and why he spends every waking moment thinking of ways to make it bigger, better, and more meaningful. Even though the 103-bed orphanage was full, James took the little girl in. Saving kids from starvation, disease and other sad endings is why the Cullman resident opened the orphanage - and why he spends every waking moment thinking of ways to make it bigger, better, and more meaningful.

"It would be a sin for me to turn away," James said last week. "I'd like America to realize the reason that we have so much is to give back."

The 53-year-old cancer survivor flung open the doors to the orphanage on Easter weekend 2003 as a memorial to his late daughter, Brittney. Ever since, Alabamians have been jumping on board to help: eye doctors; dentists; missionaries; surgeons.

James, who met many of his supporters while working as a nurse anesthetist at Huntsville Hospital, has already scheduled eight trips to Kenya next year because so many people want to volunteer. And there's plenty to be done, including making sure a new medical clinic beside the orphanage is ready for patients.

The 6,000-square-foot clinic in Marindi, largely financed by Huntsville businessman Ian Panton and his wife, Linda, is far nicer than the town's three existing hospitals. It will be stocked with more than $500,000 worth of equipment donated by Huntsville Hospital, Crestwood Medical Center and Mission Outreach, a nonprofit that sends used medical gear to developing countries.

James envisions the clinic repairing hernias, club feet and other health problems that typically go untreated in Kenya, contributing to the country's low life expectancy - 52 years for a man, 55 years for a woman. By comparison, men born in the United States have a life expectancy of 73 years, women 79 years.

"I think this will be the most modern medical center within 200 miles," said James, who now works at HealthSouth Lakeshore Rehabilitation Hospital in Birmingham. "I can see us by 2010 being able to treat children with cancers and lymphomas."

The clinic plans to charge 90 cents per visit, equivalent to about a day's pay in western Kenya. Dr. Heather Estopinal, a Huntsville ophthalmologist, traveled to Africa with James last summer to help restore eyesight to villagers with severe cataracts. Most had never seen an eye doctor, she said.

"It's almost like you're the answer to their prayers," Estopinal said Wednesday. "It's a wonderful mission." Like James, Estopinal thinks big when it comes to the clinic: She wants to send American eye specialists to Kenya every three months to fix cataracts and other vision problems before they cause blindness.

"In developing countries, you see elderly patients that just go totally blind and have to use sticks to get around," Estopinal said. "That's almost a death sentence."

Because of the shaky economy, James said he expects 2009 to be a lean year for his nonprofit agency, KenyaRelief.org. Each child at the orphanage has an American sponsor who pays $75 a month to cover their food, shelter, schooling and medical care. Estopinal and her husband, anesthesiologist Temple Estopinal, sponsor a 13-year-old boy named George who was living on the streets.

"These children are so grateful for the opportunity to have clothing, three meals a day and a safe place to stay," she said. "They're regarded as the luckiest kids in the region."

From humble beginnings in a refurbished church, the orphanage has blossomed into a 21-acre compound with dormitories, homes for visiting relief workers, the clinic and a dining hall that James calls "the prettiest building in town." The cafeteria is named for the late Cullman-based Christian singer Whit Warren, an early supporter of James' relief work.

James employs 30 townspeople and two American missionaries from Rome, Ga., who manage the orphanage in his absence.

More orphanage-related projects are on the horizon: a veterinary hospital to care for the farm animals that rural Kenyans depend on for survival; and a vocational school to prepare teenagers for life after the orphanage. Twenty kids will graduate from the home next year, but there are 80,000 more homeless youngsters in the region who need help.

"I'm proud of what we've done so far," James said. "God's amazing, and I think you become part of that amazement when you give yourself to his plan. To reach the fatherless is the very thing he would be doing if he was here."