CURE Uganda Makes a Global Impact
Stories | 1 Jul 2024
On any given weekday, the waiting room at CURE Uganda is full of moms and dads—their arms cradling some of the world’s most fragile and vulnerable: babies in need of life-saving neurosurgical care.
The types of brain surgeries these children require are so specialized that desperate parents travel thousands of miles to the hospital in Eastern Uganda—often from surrounding countries—in hopes of saving their children. For those who reach CURE, their child will be treated immediately.
Yet, there are thousands more children who will never receive the care they need due to the very limited number of neurosurgeons in sub-Saharan Africa. There is currently just one neurosurgeon for every 6 million people (compared to 66 for every 6 million in the US).
CURE Uganda is working to ensure that every child living in Africa has access to the neurosurgical care they need.
Growing a Center of Neurosurgical Excellence
Since opening in 2001, CURE Uganda has emerged as one of the world’s leading pediatric neurosurgical hospitals and currently provides close to 2,000 surgical procedures per year for children with life-threatening conditions like hydrocephalus and spina bifida. In addition to life-saving care, every patient and family served by CURE Uganda has the opportunity to learn about the love of Jesus.
“We want to heal as many children as possible,” says Tim Erickson, Executive Director of CURE Uganda. “But we’re just one hospital, so that’s why we are investing in training neurosurgeons to improve the quality and accessibility of specialized pediatric neurosurgical care in underserved countries across the continent.”
CURE Uganda partners with the College of Surgeons of East, Central, and Southern Africa (COSECSA) on a residency program to train the next generation of neurosurgeons in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, the internationally recognized CURE Neuro Fellowship Program draws neurosurgeons from around the world who come to learn a minimally invasive technique to treat spina bifida and hydrocephalus developed by CURE Uganda’s founding Medical Director, Dr. Benjamin Warf. To date, these programs have equipped 78 neurosurgeons from 28 countries—and each one trained goes on to reduce barriers to life- saving care for thousands more children.
“To give an example of how the impact ripples out, not long ago CURE trained two Kenyan neurosurgeons who took what they learned back to western Kenya, where they’ve already performed more than 200 hydrocephalus surgeries,” explains Dr. Emmanuel Wegoye, CURE Uganda’s Medical Director. “Now, children in Kenya have a place to get this kind of life-saving surgery.”
Building Hospital Capacity to Serve More Children
Over the past five years, CURE Uganda has experienced a 45 percent increase in admissions and surgeries. In response, the hospital is in the middle of a multiyear expansion to grow its facilities and medical and ministry teams to meet the increasing need for expert neurosurgical care in the country and across the continent.
In 2023, the hospital opened a new intensive care unit to help more children and broke ground on a surgical center that will allow doctors to serve 500 more patients—and train more neurosurgeons— each year.
Dr. Emmanuel expresses his gratitude for generous partners like you who help expand care for the world’s most fragile babies. “I am more than convinced that the mission of CURE Uganda is serving the least in this world,” he says. “Together, we are helping the most vulnerable and ignored children to experience God’s love and healing. It’s a privilege to know our donors and partners are standing beside us in this work. We could not do it without you.”
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