Kumar

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — For many college students, the summer months mean 15 weeks of academic freedom, a time of utter relaxation when tanning, swimming and barbecues are the norm. Rajiv Kumar viewed the summer as an opportunity to not only make some money, but more importantly, gain some valuable work experience toward his career ambitions of becoming a doctor.

That attitude would eventually lead to the founding of Adopt a Doctor, a Providence-based nonprofit organization that seeks to halt the brain drain of experienced physicians away from the world's poorest countries.

"It was the summer of 2004 — I was in between my junior and senior years at Brown University — and I needed a summer job," Kumar said. "I saw a posting on Brown's student summer job board that caught my eye — it was a position researching the poorest countries in the world — and it sounded like fulfilling work, so I applied for the job."

Kumar met with Ray Rickman, then the assistant to Providence Mayor David Cicilline, who had conceived a plan to provide financial assistance to experienced doctors in Third World nations and needed help implementing it. Rickman is now president of Adopt a Doctor.

Kumar beat 10 other applicants for the job because "he was the best and the brightest of the bunch," Rickman said.

Kumar, who was born and raised in Glastonberry, Conn., grew up in a family of 20 doctors, including his mother and sister.

A 2005 Brown University graduate with a bachelor's degree in business economics, Kumar is currently a second year student at the university's Warren Alpert Medical School, where he serves as a fellow for the Doctoring Teaching Academy. He hopes to pursue both a master's degree and a medical career in the field of public health. He was recently named by Providence Monthly magazine as one of "15 Up-And-Comers to Watch" in 2007.

Rickman and Kumar spent the summer of 2004 brainstorming ways to turn Rickman's dream into a reality; they eventually decided to establish an organization devoted to that purpose. It would become Adopt a Doctor.

The organization aspires to solve the problem of high turnover rates and unavailability of experienced physicians in developing nations by providing those physicians with financial aid and other critical resources.

Currently, Adopt a Doctor sponsors doctors in four impoverished nations: Mali, Liberia, Malawi and Sierra Leone. Every month, the organization provides sponsored doctors a $100 stipend, which they may spend however they choose. In exchange, each doctor signs a contract agreeing to remain in his or her chosen country for seven consecutive years.

Funding comes from individual donors and community organizations. Adopt a Doctor solicits commitments from donors to sponsor, or adopt, a doctor by contributing $100 annually for a period of seven years; the goal is to line up 12 donors per doctor. The organization also accepts single-payment donations.

"It's such a simple concept — we pay them $100 a month — yet it works so well," Kumar said. "That's not a lot of money to people living in the United States, but to the doctors that we're sponsoring, it's double or even triple their monthly incomes."

Adopt a Doctor redistributes 100 percent of the donations it receives to the doctors it sponsors; it solicits separate contributions to cover its administrative expenses from large corporations.

Early on, Kumar and Rickman faced daunting challenges — notably, fund-raising and name recognition — but gradually, they conquered those obstacles through a simple but effective method.

"We went out and talked to the community," said Kumar, who serves as Adopt a Doctor's chairman. They hosted a series of meetings  throughout Rhode Island to introduce people to their mission, and also reached out to church groups and sent out postcards. "To go into a town where you know no one and have 50 people show up was amazing," he said.

Yet, persuading individuals and businesses to donate to a charitable organization that focuses its efforts on Africa's poorest nations wasn't easy, according to Rickman. He said the constant violence and a culture of corruption that is so pervasive on the continent left some potential donors hesitant to part with their cash.

The solution to the problem came from John Murphy, a longtime associate of Rickman's and the president and founder of Warwick, R.I.-based Home Loan Bank Inc., after Rickman asked him to donate $10,000 to Adopt a Doctor.

"I was happy to donate to the organization because it sounded like such a worthy endeavor, but I told him he should bank it with the Rhode Island Foundation and create an endowment," Murphy said.

Founded in 1916, the Rhode Island Foundation is a $500 million community organization that connects private philanthropy to the public good. By working with the Rhode Island Foundation, Rickman and Kumar were able to turn Murphy's $10,000 donation into a lasting endowment.

In less than five years, Adopt a Doctor has grown from a dream into a well-respected nonprofit organization with 16 doctors under sponsorship. Rickman and Kumar aim to boost that figure to 200 doctors within four years.

"We're setting an example by investing in human resources in Africa," Kumar said. "We would love to see a major organization or foundation follow our lead and be a pioneer in this area. There are very few organizations that are investing in the training and funding of health-care workers in Africa. I like to think that we're shining a bright spotlight on this calamity of doctors fleeing from countries where they are sorely needed."