Kiribati Medical Scholars
Training the islands' own doctors, nurses & health professionals
A visiting team can treat 900 patients in a week. A home-grown physician serves their community for a career. This is teaching to fish rather than giving fish.
The Need
Kiribati has one of the world's lowest densities of doctors and nurses. There is no doctor at all on Fanning or Washington Island, and no specialist on Kiritimati. Visiting missions relieve suffering, but they cannot staff a health system — the long-term answer is Kiribati's own young people, trained and returned home.
The Program
We are developing a scholarship program to sponsor promising I-Kiribati students through medical, nursing, and allied-health training at regional institutions, with a commitment to return and serve their home islands. This is the long-term solution to so many of these issues.
The true cost of a scholarship goes well beyond tuition. For a student from the outer islands, reaching a foreign university means international travel, visa applications and fees, housing, and years of support far from home. Candidate identification runs through local schools — a natural extension of our TESL program — with mentorship from our volunteer clinicians throughout training.
Potential Partnership: BYU-Pathway
We are exploring a partnership with the BYU-Pathway program, which offers accessible, low-cost online higher education and already operates across the Pacific, including in Kiribati. A Pathway partnership would give aspiring scholars an academic on-ramp they can begin from their home islands: foundational coursework, English-language academic preparation, and demonstrated readiness — all at minimal cost, before any large scholarship commitment is made. The result: more candidates get a genuine chance to start, and scholarship dollars flow to students who have already shown they will finish.
Program Funding (Annual, Pilot Cohort)
Scholarships — 2–3 students at $25,000–$35,000 each (tuition, housing, travel & visas) — $50,000–$105,000
Candidate identification, Pathway on-ramp support, mentorship & institutional partnerships — $5,000–$10,000
Total annual program — $55,000–$115,000
Support This Program
Sponsor a scholar — $25,000–$35,000/year. One student, fully supported: tuition, housing, travel, and visas.
$5,000 funds the Pathway on-ramp — foundational coursework for the next cohort of candidates.
Endow the first cohort and put the islands' future doctors in the classroom.
Donate Now → All contributions are tax-deductible. To direct your gift to this program, note the program name with your donation or contact us.
Program Updates
The latest from the field. Check back here as this program grows.
2026 — Program in development. Candidate identification pathways and institutional partnerships are being designed — the first cohort launches on funding.