CURE International

CURE International

Founded	1996
Founder	C. Scott Harrison, M.D., Sally Harrison, R.N.
Type	International child healthcare organization
Focus	International Healthcare
Location	New Cumberland, PA
Area served	30 Countries
Method	Surgery, advocacy, treatment
Key people	Dale Brantner, President and CEO; Brant Hansen, Storyteller
Revenue	$60 million
Employees	1600
Slogan	healing changes everything
Mission	"Healing the sick and proclaiming the Kingdom of God."
Website	cure.org

CURE International is a Christian nonprofit organization based in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania.^[1] CURE's efforts are focused on providing medical care to children suffering primarily from orthopedic and neurological conditions. The organization's stated mission is "healing the sick and proclaiming the kingdom of God." The organization operates 10 hospitals in the following countries: Afghanistan, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, the Philippines, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates and Zambia. The organization also runs specialty programs for clubfoot and hydrocephalus in an additional 19 countries^[2] including Bangladesh, Honduras and India.

History

The organization was founded in 1996 by Dr. C. Scott Harrison and his wife, Sally.^[3] Ten years earlier, Dr. Harrison traveled to Malawi, Africa to perform spine surgery and teach higher level orthopedic surgery skills to local surgeons. In the years following, Dr. Harrison and his wife made many trips back, discovering a need for children with orthopedic disabilities. When his tenure as CEO and President of Kirschner Medical was over, Dr. Harrison created CURE, hoping to meet that need. CURE's first hospital opened in 1998 in Kenya. Today, it is the largest provider of pediatric surgical care in the developing world.

Hospitals

Current Hospitals

Dominican Republic: The CURE Dominican Republic Hospital, established in 2003, is located in Santo Domingo. Serving approximately 700 outpatients per month, the hospital also sends surgical teams into Haiti and responded to the 2010 Haiti earthquake by sending in one of the first surgical teams into that country.

Afghanistan: CURE accepted the invitation from Afghan Ministry of Public Health to take over a hospital located in Kabul in January, 2005. The hospital offers care for 8,000 patients each year and training programs for doctors and nurses in obstetrics and gynecology, pathology, orthopedic surgery, plastic surgery and general practice. In the Fall of 2006, CURE partnered with Smile Train to develop a cleft lip and cleft palate surgical training program. On 24 April 2014, three CURE physicians were killed by an Afghan security guard, among them being one American, Dr. Jerry Umanos, a pediatrician.^[4] Dr. Umanos' wife, who forgave the gunman, commented on her husband's "love for the Afghan people" and "desire to be the hands and feet of Christ".^[5][6]

Ethiopia: The CURE Ethiopia Children's Hospital, established in 2008, is a pediatric orthopedic teaching hospital in Addis Ababa. The hospital provides training in pediatric and advanced orthopedic techniques and has a dual focus on pediatric orthopedics and pediatric plastic reconstruction, such as cleft lip, clubfoot, limb deformities, etc.

Kenya: The first CURE hospital opened in 1998 in Kijabe. The AIC-CURE International Children's Hospital is a 30-bed hospital that serves approximately 8,000 children per year, also operating mobile clinics to remote regions.^[7] The orthopedic training program has been certified by the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa, where surgeons will spend five years training at the hospital and then work at another CURE hospital for an additional amount of time. CURE clubfoot, a non-surgical treatment for the correction of clubfoot in young children, is hosted in this hospital.

Malawi: Established in 2002, the Beit CURE International Hospital in Blantyre has 66 beds and has expertise in total hip and knee replacement surgery. The hospital also provides physiotherapy and chiropractic services, offers orthopedic training, mobile clinics and a partnership with Smile Train.^[8]

Niger: The CURE hospital opened in Niamey in the summer of 2010, offering speciality surgical care and training programs for doctors and nurses. In April 2016, the Satmed eHealth platform was deployed to the Niamey CURE hospital to provide communication between staff and national and international doctors to receive medical counselling, remote diagnosis of patients by experts across the World, online training for doctors and nurses to improve their knowledge, and easy access to the internet, via satellite.^[9][10]

Uganda: Specializing in treating neurosurgical needs, the CURE Children's Hospital of Uganda opened in 2000 and has been recognized as a global leader in treatment of hydrocephalus. The hospital, located in Mbale, also treats children with neural tube defects, spina bifida, epilepsy, and brain tumors. The training program brings in surgeons from many countries, including Bangladesh, the U.S., and Ghana.

United Arab Emirates: The CURE Oasis Hospital, located in Al Ain, was established in 1960 to bring American medical care to the UAE. The hospital delivers 3,500 babies and treats over 122,000 patients annually. CURE acquired the hospital in 2006.

Zambia: The Beit CURE International Hospital of Zambia was established in 2004, in Lusaka when CURE signed an agreement with the Zambian Ministry of Health to operate a pediatric teaching hospital, specializing in treatment and care of children living with disabilities. The Beit Trust, a UK-based charity, donated $1.5 million to support construction of the hospital as a centennial gift to the people of Zambia. The hospital partners with Smile Train and has a hip replacement program.

Tebow CURE Hospital

CURE and the Tebow Foundation announced plans to build a children's hospital in the fall of 2011 in the Philippines, the country where ESPN broadcaster Tim Tebow was born. The Tebow CURE Hospital in Davao City, on the island of Mindanao, will hold 30 beds and will specialize on orthopedics. Construction began in January 2012 and was completed in late 2014, with a grand opening in May 2015. The project is estimated to cost $3 million.^[11]

Closed Hospitals

Honduras: In 2013, the CURE Internacional Hospital de Ortopedia Pediátrica, located in San Pedro Sula, closed due to increasing insecurity in the country, and a lack of funding from the government. During its four years of operation, approximately 20,000 children were treated with orthopedic corrections.^[12] CURE continues to work in the country through its specialty clubfoot and hydrocephalus programs.

Specialty programs

CURE Clubfoot Worldwide: Clubfoot, a congenital deformity making walking difficult or impossible, can be corrected, using the surgery-free Ponseti Method for $250.^[13] CURE Clubfoot's goal is to eradicate clubfoot in the developing world, with over 220,000 children born each year with the deformity. By partnerships with other international NGOs, the donor community and in-country partners, CURE has treated 37,665 children in 18 countries with 291 clinics.^[14]

CURE Hydrocephalus: The program provides surgeons the training and equipment to combat the condition. Surgeons are trained in multiple forms of hydrocephalus treatment, including a “shuntless” procedure known as the Warf procedure, or ETV/CPC, where they identify the blockage in the brain and create a new path through which the accumulating fluid can drain naturally. Lasting as short as 45 minutes, CURE claims the results of this surgery are permanent and often much more stable than implanting a shunt. On August 2, 2011, three representatives of CURE Hydrocephalus testified in front of the U. S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights. Dr. Benjamin Warf, former medical director of CURE Uganda, Dr. Steven Schiff, who conducted research at CURE Uganda, and Jim Cohick, Senior Vice President of Specialty Programs at CURE International, spoke on the issue.^[15][16]

External links

• Cure International official site
• U.S. PVO Registry United States private voluntary organizations entry
• Bringing Hope and Healing to Disabled Children Synergos
• CURE Partners with Tim Tebow PR Newswire
• Oasis Hospital in UAE Oasis Hospital

References