After spending a year teaching in India and participation in the UMB Global Health Summit last month, Dhruv Shah knew he needed to do something to help the COVID-19 humanitarian crisis in India.

Shah, a University of Maryland School of Medicine student from the class of 2024, not only raised $4,000 to pay off covid-related medical bills for his former students, but also secured $4.5 million worth of medical supplies and equipment from the University of Maryland Medical System.

“I can start doing stuff now. I’m a student, yes, but I have a degree in something and knowledge I can use to make changes,” Shah said.

In 2019, Shah – who’s family immigrated from India – was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to teach English to middle school students at Ramakrishna Mission High School in Visakhapatnam, located in southern India.

“The school enrolls students below the poverty line in India. Since I was their teacher, I was seeing them every day and was exposed to everyday details of their life,” Shah said. “From my position of privilege, it made me realize how much people who go through in different places in the world.”

As the youngest teacher there and as American with a different teaching style, Shah became a favorite among the students and keeps in touch with many of them, as well as the school’s principal. He reached out to see how things are going for the students and learned there’s a need for aid in whatever way possible.

“The people at the bottom who don’t have the most resources are the ones who suffer the most,” Shah said.

He quickly set up a Venmo fundraiser and raised $4,000, much of which was used to pay off medical bills for the students.

Wanting to do more, Shah reached out to Rena D. Malik, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery and OB GYN & Reproductive Science at the UM School of Medicine, who encouraged him to reach out to the South Asian Medical Student Association and South Asian physician community and ask the question: “What can UMMS do not help?”

That lead to 22 students and 22 physicians signing a petition encouraging UMMS to assist their efforts.

Also included on the email? Mohan Suntha, MD, MBA, President and CEO of the University of Maryland Medical System, and E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, Dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Shah said he quickly heard back from Dean Reece, who explained what the School of Medicine was already doing, and from Dr. Suntha, who organized a video call May 21 with all interested students and doctors. “It brought everyone – all the doctors and students – together to see how we can share knowledge,” Shah said.

Since the call, Dr. Suntha’s team has vetted and selected two organizations to donate $4.5 million of UMMS physical medical equipment, including PPE, oxygen concentrators, oxygen tubing, and 100 ventilators to India and Sri Lanka.

The equipment will be directed to Project C.U.R.E., the world’s largest distributor of donated medical equipment and supplies to resource-limited communities, and the International Medical Health Organization (IMHO), whose mission is to develop and improve healthcare, education, and infrastructure in underserved regions.

Much of the supplies will be sent to health centers in rural areas which are under-resourced even outside of Covid. Kirti Shetty, MD, Professor of Medicine at the UM School of Medicine, is working Project C.U.R.E. and Shah to direct the supplies to the hospitals and community health centers.

Part of what empowered Shah to help was his participation in the UMB Global Health Summit in May as a Summit Scholar, an experience that helped bring everything together.

Through his conversations as a Summit Scholar talking with physicians and other medical students, Shah said he realized he has a certain amount of say in how things are done and can create projects to help people.

“I was empowered to engage in such a way because of the conversations I’ve had as a part of being a Global Health Summit Scholar,” Shah said. “I would never think I would be able to have the Dean of UMSOM and President/CEO of the entire UMMS reply to my plea. I hope this is just the beginning of my work in global health.”