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Ex-pizza boss heals the poor

By Andrew Moody and Chen Xiaorong (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-30 07:53

A former American restaurant owner has built a new career providing medical help to people in one of the remotest areas of China.

James Heinritz, 46, is executive director of the DorJe Association, which runs clinics and hospitals in villages in the western Sichuan province.

His current work is a far cry from running one of Boulder, Colorado's best known hamburger and pizza restaurants.

He is now responsible for running the non-governmental organization, which provides vital medical aid to patients, many of them children, who are unable to afford conventional medical help.

"Many of our patients live in the mountains and they suffer from lung problems like TB, smoke inhalation from cooking inside tents, dysentery and arthritis made worse by the minus 25 centigrades cold, " he said.

"There are also a lot of gynocological problems from women not being able to wash their hands in the extreme cold."

Heinritz quit the restaurant business after studying Chinese medicine for four years at the Southwest Acupuncture College in Boulder and then moved to China.

"I was tired of the restaurant business after ten years of it and I didn't know what else to do," he said.

DorJe came about after Heinritz and a friend, a Chinese medicine practitioner in Shanghai, Dr Xin Li, went to Sichuan to spend time in a retreat.

By chance they encountered the abbot of a monastery who was opening the new Kalsang Philanthropic Hospital and wanted someone to run it.

"I think when the abbot asked me he sensed I might want to do this. I didn't have to think very long," recalled Heinritz.

Heinritz registered DorJe - the name is a Tibetan word meaning when everything becomes clear - as an official NGO in France in 2007.

It is run from Beijing by Heinritz, and is now rapidly expanding the number of clinics it operates with a further five planned by the end of this year at a cost per clinic of 100,000 yuan or $14,600.

The organization relies heavily on volunteer doctors and nurses but provides salaries for doctors of up to 1,300 yuan a month in some cases.

Heinritz, who also acts as a retail consultant in Beijing, said running an NGO is very much a business operation.

"Business works when both sides to any transaction understand each other. Deals fall through when there is a communication breakdown," he said.

"We require a lot of communication because DorJe is a European entity, run by an American and is based in China."

He said many of the people DorJe sees do not have access to medical treatment and, living on 1,000 yuan a year, could not simply afford it anyway.

"Some people in the mountainous areas are 50 kms from the nearest road and conventional medical help is not readily available."

DorJe provided medical help during last year's Sichuan earthquake, which shook the area in which the organization operates.

"I was there when it happened. The walls of the building I was standing in shook and plaster came down from the ceiling. We were concerned whether we could get out of the building since the external staircase might have become detached from the building. A number of our staff helped with the relief effort," he said.

Sylvie Hu, an acupuncturist who has worked for the Association, says it is possible to treat up to 60 per cent of people who come through the door with Chinese medicine.

"There are a lot of problems relating to dampness such as rheumatism which can easily be treated. The person can be in a lot of pain but afterwards be back in the fields earning a living," she said.

Yang Yongxiao, who has performed operations, says some of the patients are very young.

"We once did an operation to remove cataracts on a boy who was just 11 who wasn't able to see. Three days after the surgery the boy had his vision back. Even doctors who were hardened to the local conditions were moved to tears," he said.

"I think that the work that James has done has been an inspiration."

For the moment Heinritz wants to continue with his work in China and has no intention of returning to the restaurant business.

"The only downside is that you cut yourself from the regular flow of income from running a successful restaurant business. I don't see myself going back to the States anytime soon though," he said.

(China Daily 03/30/2009 page1)