Nov 12, 2014 By Terri Johnson 3 min read

Robert Oppel has lived, worked, traveled and volunteered in more places in his 35 years than he can remember, but the 1998 graduate of Upper St. Clair High School still refers to Pittsburgh as home. In the next few months, Oppel said he would like to return to his hometown to be closer to his family and when he does relocate, Oppel will bring a vast knowledge of the world from a unique perspective.

He is a certified surgical technologist and medical assistant, in addition to being an actor, musician and filmmaker. On a volunteer trip to Kenya through CureCervicalCancer.org at the end of October, he was also the group’s photojournalist.

This was Oppel’s second trip to Kenya through the group, the first in April and May of this year, where he helped to perform visual inspection with acetic acid – white vinegar – to detect any lesions on a woman’s cervix. If the test is positive, the lesions are treated with cryotherapy.

Of the cryotherapy, Oppel said, “It is simple, painless and very inexpensive.”

One of the purposes of CureCervicalCancer.org is to set up clinics in several countries, including Kenya, and to train the staff and to supply the equipment for detection and treatment after volunteers, like Oppel, return home. The VIA procedure is often known as the “See and Treat” method.

“If they can catch (cervical lesions) in time, they can live a long life,” he said from his current home in Los Angeles. According to the organization’s website, a common PAP smear test performed in the United States is not widely administered in Kenya, and with only six working radiation machines in use on the African continent, early detection and treatment are necessary.

Oppel was in Africa during the Ebola outbreak.

“Because of the recent Ebola scare, this trip was risky,” he said. “However, we were located on the eastern side of Africa, but still, the danger was present, especially in the women’s prison of Langata, which borders the Kibera Slum where women will commit petty crimes just to receive health care in the prison system.”

The group also helped women in Kisii and Kisumu.

His involvement in the CureCervicalCancer.org program began when he worked as an assistant in the radiation oncology department at the Beverly Hills Cancer Center. That is where he met Patricia Gordon, a radiation oncologist, who is instrumental in the organization.

The Kenyan clinics are only one portion of the organization’s programs with similar operations in Guatemala, Haiti, Ethiopia and Vietnam. According to the group’s website, more than 80 percent of cervical cancer cases are in developing countries.

Oppel said his interest in the medical field began when he was a small child helping his mother, Mary Oppel, care for his grandmother. When he returns to the Pittsburgh region, Oppel plans to seek employment in the medical field.

As for his most recent trip to Kenya, Oppel said, “I’m compiling all the footage I shot on these two missions to Africa and condensing it into a documentary I call, “Africare,” which should be completed for next year’s festival season.”

He likes blending his work in the medical field with the arts. “I like to bounce back and forth between the medical field and the film business to pay my bills,” Oppel said. “One is so make believe and the other is so apparent and clear. Together, they both seem to balance me out.”