Gerry Luongo, CURE’s director of government relations, recently returned from a trip from Haiti. She toured the country with Cross, a nonprofit organization that shares CURE ‘s dedication for reaching the developing world’s children.

CURE has a hospital in the neighboring country of the Dominican Republic. About four times a year, the hospital sends a team led by the hospital’s medical director, Dr. Scott Nelson, to the city of Cap Haitien (on Haiti’s northern coast) to perform much-needed orthopedic surgeries and other procedures on the country’s physically disabled children. A team from CURE was in Cap Haitien at the time of Gerry’s visit.

Gerry shares some of her experiences:

Our schedule was busy. We drove from Port-au-Prince up to Cap Haitien, visiting several Cross programs along the way and ultimately connecting up with CURE and our outreach clinic in Cap. As we traveled, I experienced the people of this lovely country, their often difficult lives and their beautiful smiles.

The outreach clinic started bright and early in the morning as the CURE team started treating patients. People had begun lining up at dawn for a chance to meet with the team.

Dr. Scott Nelson holds a patient who was cured of clubfoot at the Cap Haitien clinic.

Some were there for a follow up appointment for a surgery they had received during Dr. Nelson’s last visit, and some were there in hope of surgery and healing. The patients had clubfoot, tuberculosis in the spine, osteomyelitis and other conditions I am not familiar with. For two days, Dr. Nelson and his team met with and treated as many patients as time would allow.

While watching the docs work, I saw a girl named Alison among the 50 or so patients sitting outside the small clinic area. Alison is a little girl with severe burn contractures.

She was hunched over, and her right arm was fused to her side due to an accident with an oil lamp. Dr. Nelson had seen her during his last visit and had arranged to have a plastic surgeon come to Cap Haitien to begin a series of surgeries needed to free Alison from her own body.

She was just one of the many patients I encountered on my trip. Sometimes, it was a little overwhelming. This is until I looked at the faces of these children with their crooked feet, broken limbs and painful spines and was hit with the realization that God loves each of them. And that CURE is there…bringing them hope. It was both humbling and amazing. I will keep these faces in my thoughts and prayers.

To learn more about Dr. Nelson’s work in Haiti and in the DR, check out his blog.