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Posts Tagged Global Outreach

Mar132013

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How can a loving God allow suffering?

posted by at 5:54 am

Editor’s note: The following was submitted by Shelia Zia, a nurse practitioner who spent a month at CURE Uganda as a volunteer. If you are interested in volunteering with CURE, visit cure.org/go.

a child at CURE Uganda

a child at CURE Uganda

I’m not sure what the date is, but I do know it is a Friday. I feel more tired today, even though I didn’t go to the hospital. It’s like that, the weariness – it creeps up on you.

We have a new doctor staying with us, an anesthesiologist who will be working and teaching at the government hospital in Mbale, not CURE. We have cooked together the last two nights, pooling together whatever we can find each day in the outdoor market. There are plenty of bananas, avocados, onions, garlic, tomatoes, rice, and dried beans – all safe to eat if washed very well and rinsed in white vinegar. There is really no (safe) meat available unless I buy a chicken to kill and pluck myself. Today I found a man selling three cucumbers, which was an incredible find. I bought all of them.  I have finally gotten used to the smells of the market, a combination of rotting meat and fish, body odor, and excrement.

Each night my new friend returns from her work at the government hospital with more horror stories. They don’t monitor a patient’s vital signs while they are under anesthesia. Ether is used as an anesthetic. Mothers in active labor are sandwiched together like sardines in the hallways and not allowed to cry out. Read the rest of this entry »

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Feb142013

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Healing in Uganda

posted by at 6:01 am

Editor’s note: The following was submitted by Shelia Zia, a nurse practitioner who spent a month at CURE Uganda as a volunteer. If you are interested in volunteering with CURE, visit cure.org/go.

Mother and child at CURE Uganda

It is 5am, and I know this because I hear the Adhan, the morning call to prayer coming from the mosque a block away. Here in Mbale, it doesn’t matter that my phone has died and I have no alarm clock. The Adhan or local rooster will wake me every morning. I am in Uganda, at CURE Children’s hospital in Mbale. Today I will meet the two neurosurgeons who perform life-changing surgery every day. The doctors round at 7:30am, then meet in the chapel at 8:00 for morning prayers. There are Bibles on every other chair, tattered and worn, some missing covers. They have been well loved.

I meet the nurses and other staff. They are so kind and humble. One says, “She is here to teach us how to do better.” The truth is, I have much to learn from them. I meet Miriam, the hospital’s Spiritual Director. I ask her what she does on an average day. She tells me, “I sit with every mother and child and just listen. The mama, she has so much sorrow to share. I pray with them, with every one of them.” Miriam expresses her dismay when I tell her we have hospital chaplains, but they only come at the patient’s or family’s request. “Who attends to the spiritual healing?” she asks. “How can the patient heal if the spiritual is not addressed?” I agree with her and I ask her what is most needed, what is the most important thing for me to do while I’m here?  “Hold their babies, love them,” she says. “No one in their village will touch them because they think they are bewitched. They need your heart and your hands much more than your head. Your presence is enough.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Dec072012

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All Smiles in Kenya

posted by at 6:13 am

From October 12-26, 2012, the CURE Kenya hospital was all smiles. Although all CURE hospitals are usually happy places, the smiles were especially bright thanks to our friends at Smile Network International.

Smile Network is a Minnesota-based non-profit which funds surgical missions and provides necessary supplies and surgical teams to repair birth defects such as cleft lips and palates. Read the rest of this entry »

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Sep182012

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Share our volunteer opportunities… win a t-shirt!

posted by at 8:30 pm

9  The introduction of social media has revolutionized the way the world communicates. In fact, it is thanks to technologies such as email, Skype, Facebook, and blogs,  that CURE can continue to exist and be successful.

These days, social media not only empowers global organizations, its also being utilized to help employers find qualified employees and to help qualified candidates find the perfect job. Because research has proven that social media is the new way to recruit, and because the CURE communication department is kind enough to let us write on the blog, the GO office has decided to give recruiting through social media a try! Here goes our first attempt…. Read the rest of this entry »

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Aug312012

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GO Team serves in Uganda

posted by at 6:13 am

From June 30th to July 18th, CURE hosted our 6th annual Uganda GO team.  For those of you unfamiliar with our GO Teams, they are teams of general ministry volunteers from around the United States.  Each year we send at least one GO team to our hospital in Uganda to support the spiritual ministry work of the hospital.  Individuals interested in being a part of the team apply to go on the trip early in the year and are chosen and trained by the Global Outreach Office and the GO team leader.

This year’s team was made up of nine women from around the country. During their time in Uganda, the team ministered to patients in the hospital as well as mothers and babies on an outreach to Gulu.  The hospital was truly blessed by the team’s visit, as they brought smiles to the faces of the mothers and children waiting for surgery. The team was also blessed by the trip, as each member experienced God’s love for them and the children at the hospital through the work of CURE.

Please enjoy these photos of some of the team members working with the hospital staff and patients. Also, feel free to check out team leader Shannon Jenning’s blog to see more photos and read more details of the team’s trip.

Think you might be a great candidate for next year’s GO team? Continue to check the CURE Global Outreach page for upcoming opportunities that will be posted in the next several months.

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Jun012012

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Picture of the Week: Short-term missions at CURE Uganda

posted by at 6:56 am

We’re hosting 14 different visitors, from six different countries, this week at CURE Uganda.

All are from different backgrounds, ages, and walks of life but are here for a common purpose and mission. CURE is not only a global organization, but a host for short-term missions and volunteers from around the world.

Short-term missions at CURE Uganda

Front row, L to R: Kathleen Roach (UGa Go team), Erin Craig, Megan Bush, Miriam Ongom, Dr. Innocente Mayanda (CURE Hydrocephalus – Angola), Dagim Kassaye (Finance Manager, CURE Ethiopia)
Back row, L to R: Emily Howell, Anna Graham, Katie Rae Spell (all UGa GO team); Ali & James Henderson (husband and wife, PT/Pastor-neurosurgeon team from the UK), Dr. Stalin Mancias (CURE Hydrocephalus – Honduras)
We’re also hosting two South Sudanese PTs this week.
 
You can volunteer with CURE, too! Learn more about opportunities to serve at http://cure.org/go.

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May292012

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Short-term missions: what it’s really like

posted by at 6:05 am

We’ve told you a lot about our wonderful volunteers and how their time and talents are a blessing to each of the hospitals they visit, but have you ever wondered what it’s really like to volunteer at a CURE hospital?

If you think traveling to a foreign country, meeting lots of new people, and partnering in the work of changing the lives of children and their families sounds pretty fun and adventurous, your right! Our goal in the GO department is that our volunteers not only help kids, experience new cultures, and have a great time, but that these trips would make a permanent impact on their life journey.

For some volunteers, the impact of a short-term trip can manifest itself in a future career in medicine or missions; for others, the trip taught them something about themselves or about God that has changed them forever. Other volunteers will go home to share their story and spread the word about what CURE is doing, becoming a lifetime advocate for our work.

Every trip, like every volunteer is a unique journey that we hope will change our volunteers in a positive way for the rest of their lives, but don’t take my word for it. Learn from these volunteers as they share their own journeys with CURE through their blogs.

Each of these individuals has volunteered or continues to volunteer with CURE and has blessed us by sharing their journey. You will find that each story, like each volunteer, is wonderfully unique and insightful.

Enjoy your peek into the life of a CURE volunteer. Perhaps one of these blogs will inspire you to make a journey of your own!

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Apr302012

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Appreciating our volunteers

posted by at 6:24 am

Hello again from the Global Outreach Office!  Did you know that April is a really exciting month with lots of things to celebrate? It’s true! April is straw hat month, frog month, amateur radio month, cranberries and gooseberries month, brussels sprouts and cabbage month, and couple appreciation month, but our favorite thing about April is that it is volunteer appreciation month! Read the rest of this entry »

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