The Medic-to-Medic Programme is a new initiative in which UK doctors and medical students directly sponsor medical students in developing countries.

This year, we are sponsoring 15 medical students at the Malawi College of Medicine in Blantyre, the country's only medical school. The government currently subsidies the tuition fees for the medical course, but at £90 per year, these are still prohibitive for many students in this very poor country.

I am a senior house officer in London and I was born in Malawi when my father was working as an engineer for the Malawian government. I decided to set this scheme up after visiting Malawi last year, and meeting the Dean of Students at the medical school, Dr Mwapatsa Mipando. He described how some students struggled to make ends meet during the course, and missed much study time as they were trying to make extra cash. Course costs such as printing and photocopying - minor to you or me - were desparately expensive for these students.

Medic to Medic works by linking donors to individual medical students in Malawi. Sponsoring a student costs just £8 per month, but smaller or one-off donations are welcome. Although each donor is linked separately to a student, we pool our donations to cover the tuition fees of our 15 students, so no one student is disadvantaged if a donor drops out.

Sponsors receive twice yearly updates on their student's progress. Elective and teaching opportunities are available, with the medical school particularly keen to welcome teachers for two-week blocks in their preclinical course.

The programme is affliated to the International Medical Education Trust 2000 (IMET2000), which aims to bring high quality medical students everywhere.

We plan to to extend the scheme to postgraduate level in an aim to stem the tide of doctors leaving the country once they have completed their undergraduate studies. By supplementing local salaries, we reduce one of the incentives to migrate abroad. We also hope next year to sponsor the training of ten clinical orthopaedic officers, who often take the place of physicians in remote district hospitals where they handle all common fractures.

For more information or to sponsor a student, please see www.imet2000/medictomedic or email kate.mandeville@imperial.ac.uk