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Posts Tagged Ethiopia

Mar272013

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The Rees-Jones Foundation Funds Healing, Encourages Giving for Ethiopia Hospital

posted by at 3:00 am

Ashenafi Legesse

Ashenafi Legesse (2) is one of dozens of children who will receive life-changing care because of The Rees-Jones Foundation’s generous matching grant.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Lemoyne, PA – March 26, 2013 - Today, CURE International announced a $250,000 matching grant from The Rees-Jones Foundation for CURE’s hospital in Ethiopia. The grant will increase the impact of gifts from donors, encouraging others to give and making it possible for more children to receive treatment. Through June 30, 2013, The Rees-Jones Foundation will match, dollar-for-dollar, all donations designated for CURE Ethiopia, including donations through the CUREkids program at http://cure.org/ethiopiamatch.

“The needs in Ethiopia are great,” said Rick Klein, Vice President of Development for CURE. “Right now, we have identified hundreds of children waiting to receive the type of specialty surgical care we can provide in Ethiopia, and we know there are thousands more. This grant from The Rees-Jones Foundation is timely and will allow us to continue to bring both physical and spiritual healing in Ethiopia.”

“Our mission is simple. We want to serve God by serving others and, in the process, enable others to experience the love of Christ in very tangible ways,” said Trevor Rees-Jones. “CURE’s commitment to spiritual healing alongside physical healing makes the organization a natural fit for what we are seeking to do.”

The Rees-Jones Foundation grant effectively doubles the impact individual donors can have on children in Ethiopia. While it helps to further funding, it also motivates others to step up and make a difference. “This grant is as much an encouragement for others as it is a promise to the children of Ethiopia,” said Klein. “For an individual donor, there is a great value in knowing you are not alone in reaching out to help these children. There is tremendous power in community.”

Joel Worrall, Vice President of cure.org, values the partnership of organizations like The Rees-Jones Foundation. “Through our CUREkids program, we can provide unprecedented real-time reporting on the children and families being impacted by CURE in Ethiopia, and when an organization like The Rees-Jones Foundation comes alongside CURE, it multiply our efforts and produces a priceless outcome: hundreds of kids whose lives are changed forever,” said Worrall.

Donations that take advantage of the matching grant from The Rees-Jones Foundation can be made online at http://cure.org/ethiopiamatch or through non-cash gifts by emailing info@cure.org.

Ashenafi Legesse (2) is one of dozens of children who will receive lifechanging
care because of The ReesJones Foundation’s generous matching grant.

About The Rees-Jones Foundation
Founded in 2006 by Jan and Trevor Rees-Jones, The Rees-Jones Foundation is a private foundation that works with nonprofit
organizations to serve others and improve their quality of life and life circumstances in tangible ways. Learn more at  http://rees-jonesfoundation.org.

About CURE International
CURE International has a 15-year track record of providing children with curable, physical disabilities the treatment they need to live normal lives. CURE operates hospitals and programs in 27 countries worldwide and, since opening its first hospital in 1998, has seen nearly 2 million patients, provided more than 138,000 life-changing surgeries, and trained over 6,100 medical professionals. Learn more at http://cure.org.

Media Contact:
Rick Klein, CURE International
rick.klein@cure.org
(972)632-7629

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Mar212013

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Bernards: Out of Weakness

posted by at 5:43 am

This is a small sample of the precious lives that came to CURE Ethiopia this past week. We pray God’s continued guidance and healing over every life that He has privileged us to share.

before-after-1 Read the rest of this entry »

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Mar152013

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Stiv Twigg: Hurting to Heal

posted by at 6:05 am

The young girl is not at all happy.

She is not excited. She cannot see what I, having been through so many surgeries, can see.  Nor can she experience what I do: the process on the road to healing.  I am the CUREkids Coordinator at the CURE Ethiopia hospital, and I get to follow each of our patients from admission to follow-up appointments.

From her perspective, she is scared. She knows that there is something not right about her leg, because it’s not straight. There are lots of smiling, unfamiliar faces looking at her, reaching for her… simultaneously threatening and promising to take her away from her mother’s embrace.  She has no concept of the surgical process, of the devastation, the opening, cutting, sewing, chiseling, removing, and reshaping that goes along with orthopedic surgery. Read the rest of this entry »

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Jan312013

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Stiv Twigg: Citizens

posted by at 6:00 am

I have been thinking recently what ‘citizenship’ means. It was poetically and boldly called out in recently-renewed President Obama’s inauguration speech, and it gave me chills.  I recently became a dual-citizen of the USA, and it really did have a profound impact on my life.  Citizenship implies ownership in, a stake of, a firm identity-founding relationship to that place — very interesting implications.

The past week and a half have been extremely busy for me.  Everyday, different things happen outside of the expected routine, and it has been a lot of fun.  Last Friday evening into Saturday, Orthodox churches in Ethiopia celebrated “Timkat,” the holiday of the ‘Epiphany’ of Jesus Christ.  They take a symbolic ‘ark’ out into the fields out of the city and worship and celebrate God overnight. Saturday morning they all come parading back into the middle of Addis Ababa, worshiping and celebrating, processing with the Ark carried by priests from each church.  It is a truly amazing experience to see, and each church from each region has a different way of chanting and singing. Read the rest of this entry »

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Jan302013

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Bernards: The Rich Life

posted by at 6:26 am

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

2 Corinthians 8:8-10


This little boy came to CURE Ethiopia last week to be evaluated for surgery. We don’t have monetary riches to give him, but the riches of God’s love, and His transforming power, we are privileged to share.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Jan252013

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Bernards: Mixed Blessings

posted by at 6:33 am

It was one of those days yesterday. The night before, the water pressure at our house was the highest it’s been in months. I was excited to have a shower that felt like it should. My hair was actually getting rinsed for the first time in a long time. The water pressure where we live varies according to use around the city as well as other things, I guess. Usually on Sunday mornings there is no water – I assume because most people are home on that morning trying to use water, instead of crammed into a blue minibus headed to work. When I woke up the next morning, the ground floor of our house was completely flooded. The plumbing was ok at the low water pressure our house has had lately, but the sudden pressure change cause a leak to spring up somewhere and it sprayed water out all night long. Read the rest of this entry »

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Jan182013

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Stiv Twigg: My first day of work. Again.

posted by at 6:36 am

Editor’s note: Stiv Twigg served as an intern with CURE in 2010, photographing children served by CURE in Africa. We’re happy to welcome Stiv back as our CURE Correspondent in Ethiopia.

I thought of writing something that was succinct and simple because I can’t really find words for today. Work at CURE began again.

I was transported back to 2010 in some ways, as I remembered all the time walking around in scrubs in children’s hospital wards and surgical theatres, explaining I am a photographer (“Ana Photographer an-shinegn.”), what I am doing there, getting in lots of quick intense conversations, then snapping back to meet the next kid as he or she comes in with Mama to prepare for the surgery… trying to make the kids laugh and feel at ease when it’s a scary process for them and they are not sure what to expect. Read the rest of this entry »

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Jan162013

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Bernards: Let Jesus Come To the World Through You

posted by at 6:11 am

These boys came to CURE Ethiopia this past week to have their leg deformities corrected. They all came together from the same area of Ethiopia. They are all very short for their age. Read the rest of this entry »

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Jan092013

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Bernards: Finding His Voice

posted by at 6:12 am

A few weeks ago we had a visiting surgeon at CURE Ethiopia who specializes in repairing cleft lips and palates. One boy came to us close to the last day to have his cleft palate repaired. On the outside, the boy appeared completely normal. But he was unusually silent. No amount of friendly or silly talk could get him to speak a word. He was born with a very wide cleft palate. A cleft palate can be a dangerous condition in the developing world. It is a gap in the roof of a person’s mouth. This makes it very difficult for a baby to suck. In a place where survival is difficult already, this can push them over the edge of survival. If the baby makes it past the point of needing to get nutrition through sucking, the next hurdle is speech. If the palate isn’t fixed before a certain age, it becomes difficult or impossible for the child to learn to speak correctly. Thanks to Dr. Joseph, this boy now has a closed palate and has found his true voice for the first time.

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness[a] will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.

Isaiah 58:6-11

Everyone of us needs to give a voice back to someone in our own sphere of influence who has lost theirs, whether they have lost their voice to physical disability, to poverty, helplessness, depression, scorn, illness, slavery, human trafficking, or oppression. Get creative and think of someone you could help to lift out of a pit of weariness, loneliness, or helplessness and show them the light and freedom of God’s love. Help us, Lord, to have our eyes open to those around us that need to find a voice.

A little girl at Cure Ethiopia who had rotational deformities of her legs corrected last week.

Originally posted at: http://ethiopia.thebernards.org/2012/12/06/finding-his-voice/.

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Dec202012

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Bernards: True Grit

posted by at 6:05 am

Abdi

I don’t want to steal the title from that movie or the worthy heroine that the story depicts. But every time I see Abdi, that phrase comes to my mind.

Abdi was born with severe congenital malformations. He only has two fingers on each hand. His lower leg on one side was small and nonfunctional. The other foot was turned in the wrong direction. He was able only to crawl; he has never been able to walk upright. He was born close to the Sudan border. His father is a hardworking and loving farmer. Read the rest of this entry »

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