Dr. Paul Law | Esther Fund

Dr. Paul Law · Sankuru Province, DRC

Executive Director

Paul Law: Hopkins-Trained Doctor Who Gave Up Everything

Most pediatricians with four advanced degrees from the world’s most prestigious medical school don’t have my problems. Like how to dig a motorcycle out of a mud pit in the middle of the night in the middle of Africa.

But that’s a common problem in Sankuru Province — a territory the size of Ohio, home to 3 million people, half of them under 18, with no paved roads, no airports, no municipal water, and no electrical grid. To see how difficult travel is there, see this video by an American film team who tried to keep up with Dr. Law – the only pediatrician in the province.

He is known by name to every village leader in Sankuru. His family’s sacrifice and his grandfather’s martyrdom are known to the entire Tetela people — up to the President of the Congo himself.

Credentials

MD - Johns Hopkins University
MPH - Johns Hopkins University
MS Informatics - Johns Hopkins University
Pediatric Residency - Johns Hopkins University
Certified in Tropical Medicine - ASTMH
Former Associate Professor - Johns Hopkins University

A Calling Felt in Childhood

Paul Law did not discover Sankuru through a mission trip or a seminary placement. He grew up there. As a boy, he worked alongside his mother in under-five baby clinics in Wembo Nyama — the same clinics his grandfather Burleigh had established when he arrived in Sankuru in 1950 as a Methodist missionary.

He grew up speaking Tetela before he learned formal English in a classroom. He grew up knowing the kings, the chiefs, the village elders — not as a foreigner earning their trust, but as a member of the family that had been part of Sankuru for two generations before he was born.

He also grew up knowing the death rate. In a province the size of Ohio, fifteen to twenty percent of children die before the age of five. No one knows the exact number — the data collection is as poor as the population. Dr. Law understood from childhood that the path to saving these children ran through two things: medicine and information. He went to Johns Hopkins to learn both.

“Since I was a child working in those clinics, I felt a specific call to serve the children of Sankuru. This has always been where I was supposed to be.”

— Dr. Paul Law, MD, MPH, MS

Thirty Years of Preparation

Dr. Law is not a dilettante who developed a passion for Africa in midlife. His return to Sankuru in December 2022 was the culmination of three decades of deliberate preparation — every degree, every research project, every institutional role chosen with Sankuru in mind.

He earned an MD, a Master of Public Health, a Master of Informatics — the science of processing health data — and a pediatric residency, all from Johns Hopkins. He then built one of the most distinguished careers in pediatric health informatics in America. He directed the national database for autism researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health. He founded ISAAC — the Internet System for Assessing Autistic Children — a web-based application now serving more than 100 research projects worldwide.

At Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, he led the Interactive Autism Network, conducting research based on 45,000 family members affected by autism spectrum disorders. He served as Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He did international health research in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Egypt, India, and the Congo for the Bloomberg School of Public Health.

He also launched Sankuru’s first health project in 1994. War forced it to close in the early 2000s. He consulted for the Congo’s National Ministry of Health on its national health information system. He served as visiting professor at the Congo Protestant University. He never stopped.

“The path to better health care for the people of Sankuru is through better data — and that’s a tougher journey than traveling the province’s rutted paths.”

— Dr. Paul Law, MD, MPH, MS

Coming Home

In December 2022, Dr. Paul Law left behind a career that any physician in the world would have envied — and moved permanently to a province with no paved roads, no airports, no municipal water, and no electrical grid.

He lives there now. He speaks the Tetela language fluently and navigates the province’s social and professional culture with the ease of someone who was formed by it. He is known personally to every village leader in Sankuru — not because of his degrees, but because of seventy-five years of family covenant with the Tetela people. His grandfather’s martyrdom and his family’s faithfulness are living memory in Sankuru, known all the way to the President of the Congo.

His views carry extraordinary weight. He is close friends with the provincial Minister of Health. He is welcomed as family by kings across the province. His grandfather is buried near the Wembo Nyama Hospital. His father is buried beside him. Dr. Law tends to both graves.

He is the only pediatrician in Sankuru Province — a territory home to 1.5 million children. He intends, with the Esther Fund, to change that — not by replacing local leadership, but by building the data infrastructure, the preventive care systems, and the institutional capacity that will allow Sankuru to care for its own children long after any outside support has ended.

Professional Career

Director, National Autism Database — NIMH
Founder, ISAAC (100+ research projects)
Director of Informatics, Kennedy Krieger
Led Interactive Autism Network (45,000 families)
Associate Professor, JHU Medicine
International research: 5 countries
Visiting Professor, Congo Protestant University

“He is known to every village leader in Sankuru — his family’s sacrifice is living memory, known to the President of the Congo.”

— The Esther Fund

Career Timeline

Childhood — Grows Up in Sankuru, Wembo Nyama Works alongside his mother in under-five baby clinics. Learns the Tetela language. Grows up knowing every king and village leader in the province. Feels a specific call to serve Sankuru’s children.

1994 — Launches First Sankuru Health Project, Sankuru Province, DRC While still in the midst of his American career, Dr. Law returns to Sankuru and launches his first health project. The Congo Wars force the program to close in the early 2000s.

2000s — Director of National Autism Database, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Directs the national database for autism researchers, applying the same health informatics expertise he intends to bring to Sankuru’s nonexistent data infrastructure.

2000s — Founder, ISAAC — Internet System for Assessing Autistic Children Creates a web-based research application now serving more than 100 research projects worldwide — a demonstration of the information system architecture he will build in Sankuru.

2000s–2010s — Director of Informatics, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, Maryland Leads the Interactive Autism Network, conducting research based on 45,000 family members with autism spectrum disorders. Serves concurrently as Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Ongoing — International Health Research, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Conducts international health research in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Egypt, India, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Consults for Congo’s National Ministry of Health on its national health information system.

2 Years — Visiting Professor, Congo Protestant University Serves as visiting professor, building relationships with the next generation of Congolese health leaders who will eventually run the systems Dr. Law is designing.

December 2022 — Returns Permanently to Sankuru, The Esther Fund · Executive Director Dr. Paul Law moves permanently to Sankuru Province. He becomes the only pediatrician for 1.5 million children. The Esther Fund is born. The work his grandfather prayed for — at the moment of his death in 1964 — begins in earnest.

Why Dr. Law is Different

What No Other Physician Can Bring to Sankuru
Unmatched Institutional Credibility

Four advanced degrees from Johns Hopkins. A career spanning NIMH, Kennedy Krieger, and international research across five countries. Dr. Law brings first-world medical science to a province that has had almost none.

Seventy-Five Years of Relational Capital
No external organization can buy what the Law family has built over three generations. Dr. Law is welcomed as family by every king in Sankuru. His grandfather’s grave is a sacred site. That trust is the foundation of everything the Esther Fund can do.

The Data Infrastructure Sankuru Has Never Had
The province’s child mortality rate is 15–20% — “No one knows the exact number because the data collection is as poor as the population,” Dr. Law says. His entire career has been building health information systems. This is what he came to do.

A Bottom-Up Approach That Will Outlast Him
Dr. Law is not building a foreign-led health system. He is building the capacity for Sankuru to lead its own health care. His goal is to make himself unnecessary — and to have local leaders, local data, and local institutions carry the work forward indefinitely.

Dr. Law speaks personally with serious partners from Sankuru — by video, from the province where he lives. If you feel called to this work, he wants to speak with you.

Why is the Fund Named “Esther”?
Dr. Law always admired the courage of Queen Esther in the Bible’s Book of Esther. She risked her life to save her people from being decimated. The story is the origin of the Jewish festival of Purim. When his pastor asked him to be the godfather of the minister’s baby daughter, Esther, Dr. Law resolved to make her “Patient #1” in his efforts to enhance preventive care. She got a full spectrum of preventive care. Not only is she doing well, but thousands of other children have also followed in her tiny footsteps, receiving the same treatment.

“We can do more with less for those who need it most.”

— Dr. Paul Law, MD, MPH, MS

“Statistically, if a child can reach the age of five in Sankuru, it will have a normal adult lifespan. We intend to make that happen.”

— Dr. Paul Law, MD, MPH, MS