This is the story of 20 Tanzanian AIDS orphans who now have a chance thanks to school tuition. This is also the story of a brand new 14-room health facility outside Dar es Salaam, the Tanzanian port city. It is the story of just a few people starting from scratch in 2005 and last year raising $800,000 in cash and equipment to build that clinic and help those orphans.
The antipodal players in the story are an Ossining intellectual property attorney named Jess Collen and a Tanzanian priest named Stephen Mosha. They met in St. Augustine”™s Church in Ossining in 2003 when the priest came to speak. They began Life Project for Africa (LPA) in 2005.
The attorney ”“ by his admission “laser focused” on his legal specialty ”“ knew nothing of Tanzanian health needs (this was a few years before his daughter Alicia would contract malaria there) and nothing of running a foundation. Collen quotes the persuasive priest: “Father Stephen said we should start a foundation to accept donations. I told him I knew nothing about that. He said, ”˜You”™re a lawyer, you can do it.”™”
Collen would discover the trick to any foundation “is filling the trough.” His partner the priest, it turned out, had a knack: “He”™s one of those people that when he speaks ”“ and he”™s very soft-spoken ”“ everyone stops what they”™re doing and listens.”
Collen is tall and lean without being skinny. He sports a tightly trimmed vandyke going a bit to gray. He is a Red Sox fan. He talks over coffee on a rainy April morning.
Collen fleshed out his story of success in Tanzania, but he was no braggart. He made clear: “Nothing happens without Jane.” Jane is his wife, fellow Collen IP attorney and mother to Jocelyn, 25; Alicia, 23 (who recovered from malaria after knowing the mosquito-borne disease”™s hammer blow); Bennett, 20; and Abigail, 15. “She makes all of this real; she brings it to life.”
Collen also praised:
Ӣ Donald Trump, whose organization made available Trump National Golf Club in Briarcliff Manor for an April 3 fundraiser attended by 225;
Ӣ hip-hop mogul Russel Simmons, LPA supporter and the April 3 host of honor;
Ӣ the entire staff at his law firm, Collen IP, who work on the project free of charge (the South Highland Avenue office is the LPAӪs headquarters);
Ӣ George Mussalli, a St. VincentӪs Hospital M.D., who traveled to the Tanzanian facility and who spoke at the fundraiser;
”¢ Danish fashion model Heidi Albertsen ”“ “our chief ambassador” ”“ whom Collen credited with bringing aboard the Charles Evans Foundation, a major supporter, among others.
Jane and Jess Collen met as undergrads at Boston College, class of 1979. They married and Jess”™ mother died the same year they graduated, events that saw them move back to the home where Jess grew up in Holyoke, Mass., to run the pharmacy in nearby South Hadley that his mother had run.
The couple had a talent for business and bought a second pharmacy, all the while attending classes at Western New England College School of Law at night. They would retain ownership of the stores until 1992, though by then they were living in New York and practicing law here.
Collen IP has 15 attorneys and boasts a client list that includes Swatch watches, “Archie” comics, even the Guyanese government fighting bootlegged spices. In a notable case, the rock band The Eagles sued the Foundation to Protect American Eagles, a Collen IP pro bono client. The Eagles and their leader Don Henley maintained the foundation”™s Web site, Eagles.org, was confusing to fans of the band. “You can”™t make this stuff up,” Collen said. He deposed Henley and found him to be a gentleman. But they never dueled in court; on the day of the trial the band withdrew its suit. “We were ready. The trial was in Knoxville. And they folded.”
LPA has no intention of folding. Collen said the effort has achieved a critical mass in fundraising, the result of networking ”“ “Heidi Albertsen calls all the time” ”“ and Father Stephen.
“Father Stephen won me over in one meeting,” he said. “He never asks for anything directly; he describes problems and challenges. He gives people the confidence to give knowing their money is going where it will be used.”
The Web site is lifeprojectafrica.org.
