History and Services

CURE International is a nonprofit organization involved in providing healthcare services to the needy people in the developing countries.

The fast-growing network of hospitals is run by its founders, Dr. C Scott Harrison and his wife Sally. Dr. Harrison is the Founder and President of the organization. In August 2010, the organization launched its website –www.cure.org- as the first in a series of new initiatives that the organization will be rolling out over the next few months.

 

CURE International transforms the lives of children with disabilities and their families in the developing world through medical and spiritual healing, serving all by establishing specialty teaching hospitals, building partnerships, and advocating for these children.

 

Founded in 1996, the hugely-popular organization is helping the children with Hydrocephalus, Cleft Palate, Clubfoot, spinal deformities, and crippling orthopedic conditions. CURE has seen over 1.1 million patients and performed over 80,000 life-transforming surgeries at hospitals it operates in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Middle East regions.

 

One of CURE’s key strategic objectives is to identify specific disabilities in the developing world on which it can have a major impact.

 

There are programs in place to target clubfoot and cleft lip/palate, two of the most common congenital birth defects. Both can be easily cured by early identification and intervention.

In 1986, Dr. Harrison, a successful orthopedic surgeon and international businessman, was asked to perform spine surgery and teach higher level orthopedic surgery skills to local medical practitioners in Malawi, Africa.

He and Sally returned to Malawi on many occasions to help more and more children with disabilities. The stark realities of the physical and spiritual needs of these children haunted them, though. They saw that they were barely making a dent and they wanted to do something about it.

The opportunity to do that came during Dr. Harrison’s tenure as CEO and President of Kirschner Medical, an international manufacturer of orthopedic products. In 1994, the company was merged with Biomet and this gave the Harrisons the freedom and resources to pursue their passion for the disabled children. In 1996, CURE International was founded and, two years later, CURE’s first hospital opened.

Since then, CURE has established a presence in several developing countries, with headquarters in the US and UK. The miracles of physical healing have opened doors to discussion of spiritual healing in ways that are affirming and culturally-sensitive.

The heart of the organization follows the hearts of the Harrisons – to continue to give hope by giving the highest quality care for the medical and spiritual healing of children with disabilities and their families.

 

The Network and Team

 

In just 14 years, Harrisons have brought CURE from a dream to reality in many developing and least-developed countries, employing more than 1100 people and trained more than 300 nurses, physical therapists, physicians and surgeons, all nationals who continue to work in the developing world. It operates hospitals in Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Afghanistan, UAE, Zambia, Ethiopia and Egypt. In the UAE, the CURE acquired the Al Ain based-Oasis Hospital which turned 50 this year. CURE acquired the 50-bed hospital in 2006. The hospital was set up in November 1960 by Drs. Pat and Marian Kennedy at the invitation of the UAE Founder-President late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan. Today, the CURE Oasis Hospital handles about 2,700 deliveries and treats over 160,000 patients annually.

The focus of the hospital remains maternal and infant health, but also offers orthopedic surgery among other services.

CURE was the first paediatric hospital in Kenya dedicated to orthopedic care and is now one of the only two programmes in that country able to offer specialized residency progrmmes for young Kenyan surgeons.

CURE was the first pediatric neurosurgical hospital in Uganda and is one of the only two such centres in all of Sub-Saharan Africa.

The groundbreaking research conducted at CURE-Uganda identified as important connection between hydrocephalus and meningitis and the work at CURE Uganda helped to refine a method of surgical correction to hydrocephalus that is now being taught through the world.

CURE-Afghanistan was home to that country’s first modern neonatal intensive care programme and the first programme dedicated to training female obstetricians in CURE’s effort to reduce Afghanistan’s horrific maternal and infant mortality rates.

In December 2007, CURE International announced plans to construct, equip and staff a state-of-the-art medical facility in the Bethlehem District of Palestine. The US $16.5m state-of-the-art medical training

 

Centre and hospital will provide adult and pediatric cardiac care, pediatric orthopedic care, pediatric neurosurgical care, and eventually, pediatric corrective plastic surgery. The hospital will care for more than 7000 Palestinians in its first operating year. CURE is working with Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders from around the world to bring the highest quality medical and surgical care and medical education to the people of Palestine.

 

 

 

Milestones

 

• 1996 – CURE International is established and construction begins in Kenya on CURE’s first hospital dedicated to helping and healing children with physical disabilities

• 1998 – The AIC-CURE International Children’s Hospital of Kenya opens

• 2000 – The CURE Children’s Hospital of Uganda opens and is recognized worldwide as a leader in the research and treatment of hydrocephalus and spina bifida

• 2002 – The Beit CURE International Hospital opens in Blantyre, Malawi, specializing in orthopedics 

• 2003 – CURE International opens a hospital in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in June

• 2004 – CURE Honduras opens in San Pedro Sula, operating in a government hospital

• 2005 – In February, Afghanistan’s minister of health approves CURE’s request to open a hospital in Kabul

• 2006 – The Beit CURE International Hospital in Lusaka, Zambia, opens, specializing in orthopedics and neurosurgery

• 2006 – CURE International assumes ownership of the Oasis Hospital in Al Ain, UAE

• 2006 – CURE International launches CURE Clubfoot Worldwide, an initiative to eliminate clubfoot as a lifelong disability in the developing world

• 2008 – CURE International’s hospital in Ethiopia opens in September, which is its 10th hospital worldwide

• 2009 – CURE Honduras Pediatric Orthopedic Hospital opens in the city of San Pedro Sula

• 2009 – CURE International sees its 1,000,000th patient

• 2010 – CURE International responds to the 7.0 magnitude Haiti earthquake by sending one of the first surgical teams into the country just two days after the quake strikes on January 12, 2010

 

 

Programmes/Initiatives

 

Founded in 2006, CURE Clubfoot Worldwide (CCW) seeks to eliminate clubfoot as a lifelong disability in the developing world in order to provide children with this condition something they never had before: hope for a future. As an initiative of CURE International, CCW’s model for achieving this goal is to establish 100 countrywide treatment programs over the next 10 years. Each program will create a self-sustainable nationwide treatment network with three specific objectives: raise awareness about clubfoot, train nationals to perform simple, corrective casting procedures and provide funding for families who cannot afford to pay for treatment.

Programs have been established in Cambodia, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Niger, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, India, Afghanistan and Honduras. New programs are being developed in

Rwanda and Burundi. Since CCW’s inception, more than 6,000 children have been cured of clubfoot.

Clubfoot is the world’s most common congenital birth defect, affecting more than 200,000 newborn children a year. Clubfoot twists the ankles inwards and downwards so that only the heel, toes or outer edge of the foot touch the ground, which makes walking difficult or impossible.

Since its inception, CURE Clubfoot Worldwide has cured more than 4,000 children in over 12 countries. Clubfoot is a congenital deformity that severely twists the foot downward and inward, making walking difficult or impossible. The good news is that clubfoot is curable and the treatment is inexpensive. It can be permanently corrected without surgery using the Ponseti Method if these children can be reached before the age of two.

 

Dr. Harrison says: “We are changing lives. By helping a child walk without crutches, repairing a smile or straightening a back, a life is changed. It is more than surgery. It is a gift that will continue to pay dividends the rest of that child’s life. Healing a child changes a family. Most communities in the developing world shun children with disabilities. But when families bring their cured children home to the village, attitudes change, stereotypes vanish and future generations of the disabled are treated with compassion and understanding.”

Considering the great job being performed by the organization to some of the most-deserving members of the society in the developing countries , creation of cadres of volunteers and the overall vision of reaching out to more people in the future, CURE International deserves to be presented with the Hamdan Award for Volunteers in Humanitarian Medical Services.