Despite life of comfort here, doctor aims to heal homeland

From his sprawling contemporary home nestled in the woods of Westborough, Oscar Kashala is running for president -- of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

A self-described political virgin, Kashala will be one of at least six people on the ballot in March, when the volatile African nation is scheduled to hold its first democratic election in 40 years.

''As a doctor, I am a healer. This is what we are for. I'm willing to give up all I have here to do this. I'm not going there to move into a palace," said Kashala, cradling a mug of tea while sitting on his butter-yellow and black leather couch in his immaculate living room, a range of trees and his in-ground pool in the background.

Kashala, who has been shuttling back and forth to his homeland, plans to move there permanently in February to kick-start his run for office, leaving behind his job as senior director of oncology at Millennium Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge.

The 51-year-old said he has already poured more than $100,000 of his own money into his campaign, which is locally headquartered in Needham and also has offices in Congo, Canada, and Europe.

A longtime friend and now political adviser, Dr. Robert Baratz of Newton, says Kashala is driven to turn Congo around because he knows he has a good chance at succeeding.

''What he's got is really, I think, a sense of obligation to do something for his own country," said Baratz, who met Kashala 15 years ago while at Tufts Dental School working on a medical research and education program in Congo, then called Zaire.

''This is a guy who can say, to hell with this. I made it in America," said Baratz, now an internist in private practice who is helping Kashala develop healthcare programs for Congo. ''This is a place where it's dangerous to do what he is doing."

It was during a visit last fall that Kashala first considered taking a stronger stand to help return Congo to the luster he knew as a youth. Less than a year later, the married father of five would be chosen as the presidential candidate by a political party created by Congolese natives in the United States, Union for the Rebuilding of Congo. The party has now been officially recognized by the government.

''It's an unbelievable landscape," said Kashala, who came to the United States to study at Harvard University in 1987. ''It just gives you a sense of the complete collapse of the social system. This cannot happen in a country like that. Congo is the third richest country in the world in natural resources."

He described the country today as rife with poverty, bloodshed, and crooked politicians. The roads were gone. So were the gazelles, leopards, and lions that had roamed the countryside. Instead, the most memorable image is that of half-naked children, their bellies protruding.

A dual citizen, Kashala has traveled to Congo to teach at two universities and deliver donated medical supplies dozens of times over the past 20 years. His nonprofit Oscar Kashala Foundation for Global Health Inc. helps educate and equip the nation's medical community.

''This is more than just a political campaign. It's about saving lives," said Kashala. ''You've got to stop the death of people who will be for you the labor force and the innovators of their society. You've got to create hope."

Kashala hasn't been involved in politics since the early 1970s, when he was president of a secret society in college that protested against President Joseph Desire Mobutu.

Ranked the second-best student in the country when he graduated from high school, Kashala graduated first in his class from the University of Kinshasa Medical School in 1980, according to his website, www.kashala.com. He also attended the University of Lausanne and the University of Geneva, both in Switzerland. Kashala served as an infectious disease adviser for the Word Health Organization from 1989 to 2000.

When Kashala speaks of the Congo of his childhood, it's like he is talking about another land.

''The Congo I knew was very prosperous country. Food was never a problem," said Kashala, the first of two boys born to a house-builder father who graduated from high school and a mother who never finished elementary school. ''We had everything, the schools were great. . . . We were growing as a very happy people."

The country's collapse has taken a personal toll on Kashala. His 52-year-old sister is his seventh relative to die over the past two decades from medical problems that he said could have been prevented or treated if the proper care was available.

Mary Madeline Kasengela bled to death on July 4 when surgeons accidentally tore part of her liver on the operating table while treating typhoid she had contracted from the drinking water. Also dead are Kashala's father, brother, two half-sisters, and two sisters-in-law.

Congo has fallen into despair since civil war broke out in 1998, resulting in almost 4 million deaths to date. It is now under the control of a transitional government headed by President Joseph Kabila, who will be running for reelection in March. His father, Laurent Kabila, was assassinated in 2001, four years after leading a rebel army to overturn longtime leader Mobutu Sese Seko and changing the country's name from Zaire to Congo.

Even though Baratz was taken aback when his friend first told him of his decision to run for president, the doctor is now confident Kashala is the best man for the job.

''He's a realist. He's exquisitely smart. He's a likable guy. He's sort of a natural leader, and his heart is true," said Baratz, a Connecticut native with no political experience.

''Believe me, there's no one else out there in the Congo that's capable and has the abilities he has."

Kashala will move his wife and 9-year-old daughter to Congo in February; their four other children are in college in the United States.

He will keep his home in Westborough, which the family calls its ''sanctuary" in the United States.

Even if Kashala fails to win the presidency, he said, he plans to remain in his homeland to help with the new government.

''I believe Congo will need people who have very good ideas about what has to happen," Kashala said. ''I will stay and pursue the same agenda."

Kashala's plans for Congo start with creating state-of-the-art medical and research centers to study the country's social, economic, medical, and behavioral problems.

Then he hopes to create alliances with countries and businesses worldwide that can help the country rebuild. But he acknowledged that change won't come overnight; it could take a decade.

''Something has to be done. I have a deep conviction that the people in power will not fix the problems if they stay in power. We will only have more problems."