Brittney James Decided to Sponsor a Child in Kenya...and Every Year Since 2002 Steve James, Brittney's Dad, Has Gone to Kenya...Is This Madness?No, Here's the StorySponsor A Child, Just One, "If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one." Perhaps that is what Brittney James had in mind.
 It started simply enough ...with a TV commercial. In 1998 Brittney James, 16 years old, saw a TV commercial.
-a Kenyan boy named Newton. For 3 years she worked after school in doctors' offices to keep her promise to Newton. Brittney wanted to sponsor a child because she believed that She Could Make a Difference.
She also wanted to meet Newton... Barely a year later, on Sept. 14, 2001, Brittney died unexpectedly and was found dead in her off-campus apartment. Steve and his wife, Greta, decided the best way to honor Brittney would be to continue helping Newton. They set up a college fund for him and asked friends to donate money instead of sending flowers for her funeral. Within days, they had $3,000 -- a huge sum in Kenya. The story could have ended there, but Steve had to do more. Steve's wife, Gretta, was worried. She didn't want him to go to Kenya. Steve is a cancer survivor: lymphoma, and Gretta didn't want him roaming around in a third world country, still plagued with malaria, typhoid, and yellow fever. But Steve felt called to go.
Steve's first trip to Kenya was March 2002. His list was short:Meet Newton, the child Brittney sponsored. Volunteer at a hospital. Before leaving, he contacted several hospitals in Kenya asking whether they wanted his help. One wrote back: Ojele (pronounced ah-joe-lay) Hospital in Migori, a dusty, AIDS-wracked town in western Kenya. (Later on Steve and Greta would raid their retirement fund to help the hospital build a new wing and operating room.) Not wanting to arrive empty-handed, Steve asked his bosses at the local hospital, where he worked at the time, if they had any surplus medical equipment. They did. Slightly used heart monitors. Surgical supplies. A cauterizing tool. Enough good will to fill a large wooden pallet. Steve spent $2,000 having the stuff flown across the Atlantic. Kenya was much, much worse than in the TV commercial that prompted Brittney to sponsor a child.Children-left homeless and parentless by the AIDS epidemic-wandered the roads and bush. Everyone lived in huts made of dried mud and cow dung. No electricity, no running water, no toilets. .
A parent at the hospital tried to sell James a live chicken for $2; he needed money to get his dying daughter a blood transfusion. Steve called home crying. “I was overwhelmed by the poverty,” he said. “I was just a wreck.” A few nights later, he had a dream about Brittney. She told him she was proud that he had gone to Kenya. James saw it as a sign from above. After meeting Newton and his mother at a hotel in Nairobi, Steve was determined. He was going back. And he was taking reinforcements. So he put together a slide show, spoke at churches, Lions Club lunches, wherever folks would listen. Most people wanted to help and gave a quarter, or a dollar, or ten. Before long he had raised $25,000 and formed a non-profit organization and called it the Brittney James Child Fund.(It is now called KenyaRelief.org) Steve returned to Kenya in September 2002-he had gathered 7 friends, including a doctor and a nurse, to go on a medical mission trip to Kenya. While there he was approached by man named Victor. He had hollow eyes and a sunken face. In his late 20's he was dying of Aids and asked Steve it he would take care of his two children: Victor Jr. and Stancey. Steve told him he would pray about it.
When the 10 bed orphanage opened Easter weekend of 2004 over 200 parents who couldn't afford to feed their children showed up.The first two beds went to Victor Jr. and Stancey. Today (Dec. 2007), 103 Kenya oprhans have a home where they are fed and clothed and taught. Brittney wanted to sponsor a child in Kenya She Made a Difference... ...And so can YOU. If You are interested in sponsoring a child contact
You can see a video(13 min.) of Steve here
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The conditions at the hospital in Migori were Shocking. 
The result of this was a dream of building an orphanage: