healing changes everything
The normally serene courtyard bustles with activity…A bearded man pulls his camera out of his large equipment bag…Nearby a small group of people converses in what sounds like three different languages…Chickens scurry to stay out of the way…Less concerned is Rocky the dog, who loiters casually under a tree.
Germania after her surgery
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Join CUREkidsStuart Palmer, the executive director of our hospital in Malawi, talks about CURE’s work in this country…..
This week’s cover of Time Magazine features a young Afghan woman who has been disfigured by the Taliban. Time’s editor, Richard Stengel, appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to discuss the decision to put Aisha on the cover and the broader issue of what will happen to women like her if the U.S. leaves Afghanistan.
As I read Aisha’s story, I learned that she was traveling to the U.S. for treatment. This isn’t a new story, but it is one that is sometimes difficult to understand. The organizations and individuals involved have the best intentions, but taking a patient to the U.S. isn’t always the only option.
We’ve gotten a lot of great stuff from the field this week. We, of course, want to make sure we share it with you! Dr. Gary Roark, CURE Niger’s medical director, took some time from his preparations for the hospital’s grand opening this fall to send an update last Sunday:
Dr. Gary Roark and his wife, Karina
Good afternoon! We just arrived back from a church service in Niamey, had some lunch, and I wanted to sit down to write an update before I have some quiet time.
Mary Walker with Saphira and her baby
We received this story from Mary Walker, a friend of CURE who spent some time at the CURE Uganda hospital earlier this month…
Having been a guest at the CURE International hospital in Mbale, Uganda, last week, I was able to accompany the spiritual director, Miriam, on daily rounds in the baby ward visiting and praying with mothers with babies suffering from hydrocephalus, spina bifida and other neurological disorders.
A mom and her baby at the CURE Uganda hospital
This summer, we have various volunteers who are serving at CURE hospitals in various capacities. Some are on teams; some are individuals. Some stay for a couple of weeks and some for a couple of months.
One of these people is Emily Laning from the U.S., who’s spending a few weeks at our hospital in Uganda. She’s provided her services in various administrative capacities around the hospital. As with most people who serve overseas in the developing world, she has experienced a different culture and a different way of life. Here is how Emily describes the random events of a typical day:
Cassava is this food they have here; it’s almost like big french fries (sort of). Every day for lunch we have white rice, beans, some sort of greens (this spinach type thing, coleslaw, etc.) and then some other sort of starch like cassava. We’ve also started sitting by Florence at lunch, which is really fun. She’s an older woman who is in charge of the nurses and has the best laugh I have ever heard!
I always like getting messages like these in my email inbox.
This message was from Ruth Castro, the executive director at our CURE Honduras hospital. She sent us a story about a patient named Isaiah who had surgery at the hospital for clubfoot. After his surgery, he can now walk like normal for the first time.
He is one of six children; he is the oldest, 13 years old. Isaiah lives in one of the nearby mountains about 16 miles from the hospital in San Pedro Sula. According to Ruth, he helps his father cut grass and take care of the corn field.
After his surgery, he said: “I would like to be a doctor and a soccer player. I give thanks to God for this hospital.”
The Honduran publication La Prensa ran a story about Isaiah and the hospital. To read it and check out a photo of Isaiah, go here. (Note: It is has been translated from Spanish into English by Google Translate. Please note Google Translate doesn’t translate from Spanish to English perfectly, but it will be readable.)
Hello, Stiv Twig, CURE’s Africa intern, with another update…
Mohammed with his mother and younger brother
Truth be told, with moving around so frequently, it seems I go in and out of various rainy seasons all the time. Each CURE hospital is located in an area of the respective country which has, to my tastes, really decent weather.
After three weeks in Zambia and another hectic trip around the Copper Belt in north-central Zambia, seeing five patients for follow-ups, I hit the road again. (Technically speaking, I flew, but you get the point.)
All through this month, we are focusing on the work of our Uganda hospital. We asked Derek Johnson, the hospital’s executive director, if he’d like to write something for the blog. He kindly obliged us…
A few days ago, we were hosting a group from The Affero Project. As I spoke about the groundbreaking work accomplished at the hospital, I told the story of a young boy, 14 years of age, named Oscar, who suffers from a brain tumor. Oscar and his father came here a couple of weeks ago without a lot of hope.
As I described this case, I reflected back on some of our success stories for children with brain tumors. In any country in the world, a brain tumor diagnosis brings thoughts of despair and hopelessness. For many of us, a death sentence is the first thing to come to mind. Dr. Mugamba, our hospital’s medical director, and his colleagues are doing groundbreaking and important work in the treatment of hydrocephalus, but it’s no more remarkable than the four dozen tumors they’ll operate on this year.
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