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Local dentist called to build houses for HIV widows in Africa
by Rob Poggenklass · News · May 23, 2007
Starr to join Friends Bringing Hope mission in western Kenya
On Easter Sunday, Anita Starr was busy playing piano and leading the choir at the West Branch Friends Church. She didn’t notice a leaflet in the weekly bulletin. Even if she had, she couldn’t have imagined that its message would change her life in a matter of months.
After the service, Starr found the leaflet when it literally dropped in her lap. She picked it up and discovered the message of “Friends Bringing Hope,” a Quaker mission in east Africa. The mission, in its second year, helps build homes for orphans and widows of the AIDS epidemic in western Kenya.
The idea of uprooting herself from her family, her downtown dental practice and the rest of her life had never occurred to Starr before. But on this day, in this message, there was something more powerful at work.
“It just kept coming back to me that this was what I needed to do,” Starr said.
Starr said she didn’t eat for about a week after discovering the leaflet. She approached Ruthie Tippin, pastor at the Friends Church, and asked if she and others could pray for her as she mulled the decision of whether to go to Africa.
Starr also spoke with her husband, Ed, who encouraged her to follow her faith. She did, and early next month, she will fly to Kenya for two and a half weeks.
“Ed told me, if that’s really what God wants you to do, you’ll do it,” Starr said. “It’s just amazing how much has fallen into place.”
According to Karen Bauer, of Brighton, who started Friends Bringing Hope, there will be 1.8 million orphans in Kenya by 2010. Many of those who die from HIV/AIDS are men who leave desperate survivors behind.
Most rural Kenyans live in mud huts, which require a constant upkeep — layers of fresh mud must be added to the outside of the home. But Kenyan tradition dictates that when the man of the house dies, no more mud may be added.
That leaves the women and children of Kenya not only without a husband and a father, but without a home as well.
The mission of Friends Bringing Hope is to build new homes for those women and children, as well as to provide startup businesses, or micro-enterprises, so that the survivors of HIV/AIDS can provide for themselves. The mission also offers antiretroviral drugs for those who are living with HIV.
All of this costs money, of course, and as a member of the mission, Starr is charged with raising about $3,500 to get to Africa and provide money toward building a house. With just a couple of short months before the trip, she knew that would prove a difficult task.
“If I’d have had my say about it, I’d have had enough money saved up, I’d have things at the office in order. That’s why it’s so different for me,” she said.
The Friends Church has given Starr its full support, not the least of which has been spiritual support. The church has also contributed money to Starr’s mission fund, including dollars from a recent rummage sale.
Tippin said Starr will be the third member of the Friends Church meeting to travel to Africa. Others have gone to Jamaica and Cuba in the recent past.
“This seems like a very neat thing to us as a meeting,” Tippin said. “To send someone to Africa is a blessing to us.”
The Friends Church will hold a special send-off ceremony for Starr at worship on Sunday, June 3. On June 4, Starr will begin the 22-hour flight across three continents, from the U.S. to Amsterdam to Nairobi. Then she’ll take a bus to Kaimosi, where she’ll join Friends Bringing Hope.
Starr said she doesn’t plan to do any dental work while she’s in Kenya. Along with Bauer, she’ll be building a house and doing whatever she can to help. She said she knows the experience will change her. She also believes that the leaflet dropping in her lap was no accident.
“I don’t know that I ever really noticed God at work before,” Starr said. “This time, I’ve noticed.”
Starr collecting supplies for mission in Kenya
Anita Starr is still collecting items to take on her mission trip to Kenya. She’s been advised to take two suitcases: one for herself and one for the people she’s helping.
The items for widows and orphans include: daily vitamins with iron, aspirin, Tylenol, ibuprofen, antibiotic cream, toothbrushes, toothpaste, antacid, band-aids, bandages, school supplies, chalk, pencils, pens, colors, coloring books, educational books, emergency candles that burn for 60 hours, bubbles and balls.
Clothing items for widows include: t-shirts and long skirts, underwear, sandals and flip-flops.
Clothing items for children include: sandals, flip-flops, t-shirts, shorts, long skirts, dresses and sweatshirts.
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