I hope all of you in the U.S. had a phenomenal Thanksgiving weekend.

The Central Penn Business Journal wrote up an article about Leron Lehman. He’s our new executive director for our hospital in Niger, which we plan to open in the fall of 2010. Go here for the interview.

Be sure to check out the blog regularly this week. We’ll have patient stories, an unusual event from Zambia and other CURE happenings.  Remember, you can send an email to blog@cureinternational.org for comments, suggestions, etc.

To the men and women serving in our 10 hospitals around the world and particularly those who are from the United States and are spending this holiday away from their families, we wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving.

To all our friends and the supporters of CURE International and its mission, we’re very thankful for all of you. As you meet around the Thanksgiving table and celebrate with your friends and family, remember the work of CURE International around the world and the children in developing countries who suffer from curable disabilities and are seeking healing.

God bless and Happy Thanksgiving,
the CURE International Team

We are happy to learn that our Sign a Cast campaign has been chosen to receive a 2009 Best in Show Davey Award for Marketing Effectiveness.

Sign a Cast is an easy and interactive way you can help a child right now.  Go here to find out more or click the link on the right.

For more info on the Davey Awards, go here.

Good news!  We just found out that we’ve reach our donation goal for Afghan moms: 2,000 blankets. Thanks so much to all of you who gave to help an Afghan mom and her newborn.

On a related note, we’ve posted some pictures from Brant Hansen’s trip to Afghanistan with CURE.

VeggieTales’ Larry the Cucumber is launching a contest to raise awareness for CURE!

CURE is excited to again be partnering with VeggieTales to raise awareness about children with disabilities in the developing world.  Larry the Cucumber posting on Facebook encouraging his friends to learn about CURE and answer a few contest questions for a chance to win a VeggieTales DVD library. 

 You can enter for a chance to win too!  Visit www.helpcurenow.org/veggiecontest

Brant Hansen

WAY-FM morning radio host Brant Hansen visited CURE’s hospital in Kabul last week to help mom’s in need.  CURE’s two facilities there provide care to thousands of Afghans every month, many of which are mothers and infants.

Each morning, Brant called into his show, Mornings with Brant, to share updates from the trip.  Brant and the rest of the Mornings with Brant crew encouraged their listeners to help Afghan moms, by donating to provide expert medical care and a blanket. 

The result was amazing!  So far 1966 mothers have been helped! You can  read more about Brant’s experience or get involved in the campaign yourself.

Good morning.

Here’s an interview with Sam Baguma. He’s our regional director of development for Africa. Sam shares some insights on his job. He also talks about the Walk of Love, an upcoming event inspired by a physically disabled boy named Michael who was treated at the CURE Kenya hospital.

Interview with Sam Baguma from CURE Video on Vimeo.

With all of the life-changing health care CURE offers its patients, one of the more little-known facts about our organization is that we feed our patients at most of our hospitals. This is often unheard of at many hospitals in the developing world. But for CURE, we consider it essential.  Many times, our patients come to our hospitals too weak for surgery. We need to feed them until they are strong enough to undergo their operation.

Currently, for our hospitals in East Africa, food is a very serious topic.  Severe drought has struck countries like Kenya and Ethiopia. Read about some of the effects:

• This is an article from the BBC about the drought in Ethiopia.

• Mission Network News recently spoke with the executive director of CURE Kenya, Jack Muthui, about the impact of Kenya’s drought on the country and hospital.

• And here’s a a fascinating photo of the drought’s effects on East Africa courtesy of NASA.

• Also, don’t forget to check out Dr. Tim Mead’s blog.  His observations on the effects of the drought in Kijabe, Kenya, are very interesting and timely.

The good news is that you can help our hospitals. Go here to find out more.

Please also pray for our hospitals in East Africa and especially for the countries of Kenya and Ethiopia as they continue to cope with the drought.