Dr. Khan at the Shifa Clinic, which provides no-cost, multispecialty health care to uninsured people whose incomes fall within 250 percent of the federal poverty level.
Written By Margaret Loftus
Portrait By Amanda Bouknight
Obstetrician-gynecologist Reshma Khan admits she went to medical school to make her mother happy. “She wanted to be a doctor, and I wanted to fulfill her vision.” Once the native of Bhopal, India, decided to focus on women’s health, she knew being a physician was the right path for her. “That gave me a boost when I realized how I could change people’s lives.”
Decades later, Khan changes lives on a daily basis as the founder of Shifa Clinic, a multispecialty medical center that provides health care to uninsured patients whose incomes fall below 250 percent of the federal poverty level, as well as hunger prevention programs to the wider community.
The idea of opening a free clinic came to Khan back in 2008 when she was practicing at the Ralph H. Johnson Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and seeing patients who were experiencing homelessness, drug addiction, and other hardships. At the same time, she was helping her five-year-old son learn about Islam, which included reading the Koran. “I myself didn’t know a whole lot,” she explains. “So my eyes opened up to the purpose of life.”
The obstacles involved in establishing a free clinic were formidable, however. “I was naive, I didn’t know anything about administration,” she says. “I couldn’t get anywhere.” It took three years of unwavering effort before she was able to get the clinic off the ground with the support of Muslim charity organization ICNA Relief. A decade later, the center continues to grow by 25 percent a year and, earlier this year, moved into new digs on Daniel Island that doubled its size. In 2022, the clinic had 3,690 patient visits and is on track to host 6,000 a year by 2026. As of September, the hunger prevention division has distributed 286,000 pounds of food, this year alone, feeding 5,570 families.
Despite her great success, Khan remains humble and gracious, citing a quote from motivational speaker Jana Stanfield: “I cannot do all the good that the world needs, but the world needs all the good that I can do.” Ultimately, the act of doing good benefits us more than the people we serve, she says. “If people understood that, the whole world would be so much better.”
