JAMES F. KAPNEK, FOUNDER

Born in Russia in 1886, James F. Kapnek migrated to the United States while still very young. In 1905, he joined National Cash Register and went to Africa as the company's representative. At just 19 years of age, he grasped the potential of Africa and decided to settle in what was then Rhodesia.

While in Southern Africa, Kapnek evolved as an inventor, pioneer, and entrepreneur. He produced the means for widespread elimination of Texas Fever in cattle, promoted water conservation projects, and even took a turn as the largest tobacco grower in Africa. His efforts greatly profited this largely agricultural region. He also constructed flour mills and prospected in gold, copper, and diamond mining. His success as a financier and business developer made him a wealthy man. However, amassing riches was not his ultimate goal.

Kapnek wished to give back to the country that had provided so much for him. He and his wife, Pita, contributed to many causes; their significant financial investment established what is now the University of Zimbabwe, the first Central/ Southern African institution of higher learning to admit both native and European-born Africans.

The Kapneks were honored for their generosity on behalf of education. The biology wing at the University of Zimbabwe was dedicated to them and still bears the Kapnek name. Queen Elizabeth II recognized Kapnek, as well, by conferring on him status as Commander of the British Empire (CBE) during her visit to then Rhodesia to lay the head stone for the University.

Visits to the United States enabled Kapnek to develop friendships in the medical community in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was there that he met Dr. Jacob Gershon-Cohen, who was instrumental in developing mammography. These friendships impressed upon Kapnek the importance of medical research.

When he died in 1966, Kapnek willed the majority of his fortune to a trust for education and medical research. He left the J.F. Kapnek Trust in the hands of family members and friends from the medical community.

THE J.F. KAPNEK TRUST: HISTORY AND EVOLUTION

Between the late 1960s and the early 1980s the Trust, headed by his sister Edith Robbins, gave medical research grants primarily in the United States. In 1983, Dr. Rebecca Robbins Polland, James Kapnek’s niece, encouraged a broader vision that included activities in the newly-formed country of Zimbabwe; thus, the Trustees initiated a program in Zimbabwe, with Dr. Robbins Polland as the administrator. Dr. Robbins Polland helped give the Kapnek Trust energy and new direction, drawing on her experience as a professor of political science and her years on the U.S. Board of International Food and Agricultural Development. She also saw the importance of women’s health and education to Zimbabwe’s movement toward sustainable development.

Dr. Robbins Polland thought it essential that people in Zimbabwe guide and influence the activities of the Kapnek Trust. Under her leadership, the Trust established the Mission School Scholarship Committee and a new Board of Directors in Zimbabwe. The Mission School Scholarship Committee (now the Strengthening Science for Women Advisory Committee), composed mainly of women educators representing each district and each major religious denomination in Zimbabwe, helped form and promote one of the Trust’s major programs: Strengthening Science for Women. Since 1983, the Committee has worked with mission schools to select potential students for this scholarship program. The Zimbabwe Board of Directors has also shaped the Trust’s endeavors, assisting in the development of the goals of the Trust, identifying university candidates and researchers for travel and research grants, and assisting in the development of the goals of the Trust.

In 1998 Dr Polland passed away and the trust came under the leadership of Daniel Robbins MD, James Kapnek’s great nephew. The offices were relocated to California where Dr Robbins began exploring avenues for the trust to play a role in confronting the effect of the AIDS pandemic on children. As a pediatrician, Dr Robbins was profoundly affected by his first visit to Zimbabwe in 1988. During that time the growing impact of AIDS on the people of Zimbabwe was becoming overwhelmingly apparent.

Dr. Robbins began exploring current programs and developed relationships with Dr David Katzenstein at the Stanford AIDS Research Center and Dr Art Ammann at Global Strategies for HIV Prevention From Mother to Child. Through these relationships a plan to facilitate the development of a national Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) began to take shape. This plan was supported by The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and through the collaborative efforts with The Center for Disease Control, USAID, UNICEF and The Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Zimbabwe; The JF Kapnek Trust brought the Zimbabwe PMTCT National Expansion Proposal into reality. AS the needs for continued development of support for these and related programs became obvious Dr Robbins established the Pediatric AIDS Fund-Zimbabwe in order to expand the funding base and create an advisory body to guide planning. Currently the trust is exploring complimentry areas of contribution particularly in the areas of orphan/ AIDS affected children educational support and facilitating the implementation of the proposed PMTCT-plus program which will add care for parents who are participating in our PMTCT program. It is through this wholistic approach that we believe that meaningful inroads can be created to replace denial with hope in the struggle against HIV in Zimbabwe.