Liliane Dusabe-Ziherambere (back row, second from right) is joined by fellow first-year students of the Ben Gurion University of the Negev M.D. Program in international health and medicine in collaboration with Columbia's Health Sciences.

Liliane Dusabe-Ziherambere, 24, is a Rwandese immigrant and war survivor. After fleeing that country's civil war, which claimed the lives of half a million people, Dusabe-Ziherambere and her family ended up at a refugee camp in Zaire, and during their brief stay there, several thousand refugees fell victim to a cholera epidemic.

Says Dusabe-Ziherambere, who hopes one day to return to Africa as a physician, "The suffering I witnessed only strengthened my desire to become a physician, for I saw firsthand how a doctor's work can make the difference between life and death for so many people."

She is one of 104 students currently studying in Beer Sheva, Israel, at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev M.D. Program in international health and medicine in collaboration with Columbia University Health Sciences. The program, BG-CU M.D. for short, was launched in 1997 as a joint venture between Columbia and Ben Gurion. It is an innovative medical education experience that focuses on the problems of healthcare delivery in seriously under-served nations—a subject about which Dusabe-Ziherambere already has an intimate understanding. The doctor-patient ratio in Rwanda is smaller than 1:70,000.

Beyond the basic medical sciences and clinical rotations found in American medical schools, students in the BG-CU M.D. program learn about cross-cultural medicine, healthcare economics, travel and disaster medicine, infectious diseases, nutrition and preventive medicine and environmental health as well as subjects such as humanitarian emergencies and relief medicine, refugee health and preventive medicine for diverse populations. Students also complete coursework in epidemiology, biostatistics, medical anthropology and cross-cultural communication. During the fourth year, students may apply to take electives at Columbia and they complete a required clinical clerkship at an approved international site. Columbia faculty members participate in the admissions process, curriculum development and as visiting lecturers in Israel.

Now in its third year, the BG-CU M.D. program includes students from around the globe, including the United States, England, Canada, India, Russia, Ethiopia and Japan.

Richard J. Deckelbaum, director of the BG-CU M.D. program, added, "Because Ben Gurion University's Joyce and Irving Goldman Medical School is located in Beer Sheva—home to diverse communities of Israelis, semi-nomadic Bedouin and immigrants from Ethiopia, Morocco and the former Soviet Union—it is an ideal place to learn about the healthcare needs of diverse populations."

Liliane's father Eleazar, now the All Africa Baptist Fellowship ambassador with American Baptist Churches of the USA, and her mother Especiose, a nurse, moved with their five children to the United States with hopes of starting a new and better life. For Liliane, who is fluent in French, English and Kinyarwanda and also speaks some Swahili, that new life included becoming the first member of her family to graduate from an American college, then studying medicine as part of the BG-CU M.D. program.

This past December, Dusabe-Ziherambere came to New York and spent a day with Roy Brown, clinical professor of pediatrics and public health at Columbia. She says of that experience, "I was amazed at the advanced technology routinely available to American doctors. It is my hope that one day disadvantaged people in my homeland will be able to benefit from modern medical equipment and procedures."

As for her future plans, Dusabe-Ziherambere hopes to practice and teach in Africa. "Training others may be the way I can accomplish the most good. I hope I can serve as a role model for young women from developing nations who may be intimidated by the idea of studying medicine."

"This program gives me a great chance to make connections with students and healthcare professionals from around the world," said Dusabe-Ziherambere. "I feel confident my classmates will eventually be the leading policymakers and practitioners in the field of international health."