Check-Up | A CURE Magazine, Issue 6

A MAGAZINE 2023 | ISSUE 6

FEATURE STORY

Doctors do whatever it takes to reach the most remote patients. pg 8

ON THE COVER Dr. Moyo helps kids kick clubfoot. pg 16

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INSIDE

Jocy never thought she'd use her arms. What happened next will inspire you. pg 12

CHECK-UP A CURE MAGAZINE 2023 | ISSUE 6 Check-Up highlights the lives of CUREkids from around the world and those who serve them.

The stories capture the physical and spiritual transformation happening around the CURE children's hospital network. This is possible by God's grace and the generous partners and supporters dedicated to making a difference in the lives of the most vulnerable children living with disabilities.

Throughout Check-Up, all hospital references use the shortened version of their legal name.

ABOUT CURE CURE International is a Christian nonprofit organization that operates a global network of eight pediatric hospitals providing world-class surgical and intentional ministry care for children living with treatable disabilities. CURE donors help provide services at no cost for families living in poverty.

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HOW YOUR GIFTS HELP Your gifts to CURE International are making a difference in the lives of children across the globe.

Your generosity provides access to healthcare and shares the love of Jesus with children and their families. When you give to CURE, your gifts provide life-changing surgical care for children with clubfoot, cleft lip/palate, knock knees, bowed legs, hydrocephalus, and more. Thank you for your partnership and support.

WE WELCOME COMMENTS AND FEEDBACK! checkup@cure.org (616) 512-3105 cure.org

CURE International 70 Ionia Ave SW Suite 200 Grand Rapids, MI 49503

THANK YOU CURE International thanks all of our donors, including O'Neil Printing for its support in maintaining print industry standards at reduced costs, allowing God's gifts and resources to be faithfully stewarded.

CURE International is a top-rated Christian nonprofit organization.

Copyright 2023 by CURE International. All rights reserved.

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Your partnership with CURE goes to the ends of the earth.

CURE NEWS Your help expands hospitals, serves refugees, and funds first-ever surgeries!

FEATURE STORY

MINISTRY TO THE MARGINS By plane, foot, and boat—doctors reach children in need.

EVERY CHILD MATTERS

HEALED ARMS, RESTORED SPIRIT Tragedy limited Jocy's life.

You gave her freedom.

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ON THE FRONTLINES

A SERVANT IN GOD'S SERVICE Dr. Moyo is helping kids kick clubfoot.

VISION PARTNERS

Q&A WITH DR. PAUL PENLEY He sees CURE reenacting Jesus’s model of ministry.

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

REACHING THE REMOTE CURE is following Jesus to seek the hidden and the lost.

letter from the editor HEAL THE SICK & PROCLAIM THE KINGDOM OF GOD - Luke 9:2

Because God calls us to heal the sick and proclaim His kingdom, we can be bold in our response to this call. In partnership with you, CURE goes to the ends of the earth to find and reach children, providing life-changing surgeries and the love of Jesus.

Together we pursue unreached children— children who have been trapped by their conditions physically, socially, and emotionally. They are the left behind, hidden, and marginalized.

Your partnership provides physical freedom to children like Jocy (see page 12). Surgery restored her body and her spirit. I had the privilege to meet her this year, and it’s clear she knows exactly who she is in Christ and what she can do with Him by her side.

This work is bold, and your generosity goes into hard places to find and serve children in need of surgical care through mobile clinic outreaches (see page 8). These clinics often fly our medical and ministry teams into refugee camps, conflict-filled regions, and remote villages.

Those working at CURE hospitals are courageous. CUREkids deserve our best, and we want to demonstrate God’s goodness to them through world-class medical care delivered with a Christ-centered, compassionate focus. Thank you for being bold to pursue God’s call with us.

With Gratitude,

DEBBIE STOWELL Editor-in-Chief

Painful burns kept Jocy from using her arms. After surgery at CURE, her future is full of possibility and lots of bike rides!

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CURE NEWS

New Surgical Center under Construction in Niger On 7 June 2023, CURE Niger held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new state-of-the-art surgical center.

It’s the only facility in the country of over 24 million to provide high-quality, specialty surgical care to children with conditions like clubfoot, cleft lip/palate, knock knees, and bowed legs.

The new center—which will house three operating rooms, a physical therapy facility, and a patient ward—will allow CURE to perform 50 percent more surgeries for Niger’s children suffering with treatable disabilities.

We are grateful for the many hands it took to bring the surgical center to fruition, including funding from USAID, the support of Niger’s government, and generous donors like you!

Serving Children in Conflict CURE Malawi conducted its first mobile clinic in the Dzaleka Refugee Camp, approximately 30 miles outside the capital of Lilongwe. The camp, built to accommodate around 12,000, is home to more than 50,000 people escaping violence from surrounding countries—and 48 percent of them are children.

CURE Niger's Executive Director, George Găvruș (far right), helps lay the first bricks on the new surgical center.

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Adequate healthcare is a challenge, especially for those with disabilities. Our medical team scheduled 23 children for surgery and will return to the camp several times a year to provide screening and follow-up care. The ministry team shared the gospel message with 1,500 people, and hundreds put new faith in Christ. CURE is strategically focused on reaching more children in remote places like refugee camps. Your generous support makes this possible.

CURE and World Vision Partner to Reach the Remote In addition to our partnership with World Vision in Malawi, our new partnership in Zimbabwe will help CURE reach and serve children living in the poorest, most remote parts of the country.

CURE estimates that more than 300,000 children in Zimbabwe live with treatable disabilities. Many have little to no access to medical care because they live in remote areas and have no transportation.

Through this strategic partnership, World Vision will help identify children in need and transport them to CURE for life-changing surgeries for conditions such as cleft lip and palate, bowed legs, and knock knees.

CURE’S new partnership with World Vision is helping bring children like little Zwonaka with clubfoot (pictured with her family) to CURE for the surgical care they need.

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CURE’s medical and ministry teams prepare to serve children in Malawi’s largest refugee camp.

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CURE NEWS

Groundbreaking Surgeries Restore Thumbs for Children CURE Ethiopia's surgeons can now perform pollicization surgeries to restore the hands of children with missing or underdeveloped thumbs and fingers.

Over the course of one week this spring, visiting surgeons trained CURE's team to perform this groundbreaking surgery.

CURE Ethiopia can now offer this specialty surgery that restores function to children’s hands, allowing them to perform basic tasks like feeding themselves, holding pencils, and playing in new ways.

Dr. Kozin (left), a visiting surgeon from Philadelphia, trains CURE's Dr. Tewodros (right) to surgically restore functionality to the hands of children.

New, Expanded Intensive Care Unit Helps More Children in Uganda

CURE Uganda’s new ICU will serve thousands of children every year.

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New Zimbabwe Children’s Ward Doubles Capacity CURE Zimbabwe opened a new children's ward in August.

The new space will allow the hospital to serve twice as many kids annually—providing them with surgical care and the love of Jesus.

The 10,677-square-foot building (approximately 1,000 square meters) boasts 42 patient beds and new places for children to play. The previous ward will now become a space where children needing longer-term stays and rehabilitation can recover comfortably.

CURE Zimbabwe opened in 2021 as the country’s first and only charitable orthopedic hospital. Now, because of your generosity, even more kids with conditions like bowed legs and clubfoot will receive the surgeries they need. before surgery

after surgery

CURE Uganda's Intensive Care Unit (ICU) has been expanded to treat more kids, making it the largest specialized pediatric ICU in the country.

A new ward means more smiles like Palmson's! CURE Zimbabwe surgically corrected his bowed legs.

The 18-bed ICU serves more than 2,000 children with life-threatening conditions like hydrocephalus and spina bifida each year. It is fully equipped with piped oxygen, modern ventilators, a centralized monitoring system, and other critical care devices.

Zimbabwe's new children's ward will serve 2x more kids! Visit cure.org/wardlaunch for a time-lapse video that takes you from groundbreaking to opening celebration in 17 seconds!

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Because of the critical nature of the surgeries CURE performs and the neurological conditions we treat, this new facility is essential to the lifesaving care the hospital provides.

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FEATURE STORY

MINISTRY MARGINS

to the

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CURE flies medical and ministry care teams to the most remote regions in Kenya.

CURE believes no child's life should be in jeopardy because they live too far from a hospital, so we're going to the ends of the earth to reach them.

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aby Patricia was born with hydrocephalus— a life-threatening buildup of fluid on the brain. The first thing any parent would do?

Seek quality medical care. With neurosurgery, Patricia has a good chance of leading a full, productive life.

But Patricia lives in South Sudan, where there is no hospital equipped to provide the care she needs.

Without surgery, she will likely die.

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CURE Uganda nurse Nora treats baby Patricia (pictured with her mom, Angelo) at the mobile clinic in South Sudan.

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FEATURE STORY

Dr. Maluki provides needed medical care to a young girl in remote northern Kenya.

Strategic partners, like World Vision and Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), allow CURE to reach children living at the margins and hidden from the world—children like Patricia. MAF flew CURE Uganda’s medical and ministry teams across the border to set up a clinic in South Sudan, the world’s newest country, where healthcare is limited and more than two-thirds need humanitarian assistance.

That’s where our story intersects with Patricia.

Unfortunately, in the countries where CURE serves, Patricia's story is not unique. Hundreds of thousands of children live with disabilities, and some will be fatal if not treated.

For children living in the most remote, impoverished regions, reaching or affording medical care is nearly impossible.

REACHING THE UNREACHED

She received surgery at CURE Uganda, and the mobile clinic in South Sudan provides her with the continuous care she needs. Her mom, Angelo, says, “I can see [she] will grow into a remarkable girl . . . I am reminded that nothing is impossible with God!”

In response, CURE sends our doctors and ministry leaders into remote villages, war-torn regions, and refugee camps to find children living with disabilities like clubfoot, cleft lip, and untreated burns. Once there, we set up mobile clinics to address medical needs, share God’s Word, and refer children in need of surgery to CURE hospitals.

how mobile clinics work 2

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CURE’s medical and ministry teams travel to communities where children are most vulnerable and lacking basic healthcare.

Doctors consult with new patients, perform follow-up care, and schedule children for surgeries.

3 Local pastors, trained by CURE, share the gospel message with children and families.

Since 2018, CURE has provided medical screenings to 75,596 children through 1,691 mobile clinics.

HOPE INTO HARD PLACES Traveling by car, plane, boat, and on foot, mobile clinic teams have brought much-needed medical screenings to 75,596 children in approximately 300 villages and towns. Your generosity has reached children in Malawi’s largest refugee camp. It has served children fleeing terrorism in Niger. And, it has flown life-changing care to the most remote villages in Kenya, where it reaches kids like Arfon (below).

Arfon sustained a burn as an infant that, as it healed, fused her skin together. Unable to access quality medical care, she lived with limited mobility for 12 years until a CURE medical team reached her. After surgery, she has full use of her arm and a future full of possibility!

Thank you for helping CURE reach and serve children with treatable disabilities in the most challenging and underserved regions of the world.

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Arfon before surgery

Arfon after surgery

5 Children return to their communities transformed! They and their families are connected with local pastors trained by CURE to provide ongoing discipleship.

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4 Transportation partners shuttle or fly children and caregivers to the nearest CURE hospital, where they receive surgical care and experience the love of Christ.

6 Transformed children transform communities as they return to school, contribute meaningfully in their villages, and proclaim the good news of Jesus.

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JOCY EVERY CHILD MATTERS

Surgery HEALED her arms.

Freedom RESTORED her spirit.

When a tragic accident changed Jocy’s life, you helped provide the life-changing surgical care she needed to realize her dreams.

Jocy before surgery, at age 5 12

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Jocy after continued care, age 12

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EVERY CHILD MATTERS

natural fiber broom and an open flame for cooking are common in most Filipino kitchens—especially in the remote village where Jocy lives in the Philippines.

When Jocy’s mom, Judith, left to fetch water, a curious older sister mixed the two.

The ensuing fire destroyed the house and permanently changed Jocy, just 18 months old at the time.

Their local hospital treated her burns—which extended across her back and down her arms—as best they could. It wasn’t enough.

Within six months, Jocy’s arms began to contract until her forearms and fingers were fused to her upper arms. Her movement was so restricted that she couldn’t bathe, dress herself, or write on her own.

Jocy’s family of corn farmers couldn't afford the many surgeries it would take to restore mobility to her arms—meaning Jocy would likely never realize her dream of going to school, riding a bike, or living independently.

Dr. Tim, in the red scrub cap, performs one of the four surgeries that restored Jocy's mobility.

Whenever she was mocked for the way she looked, she’d say, “It’s ok. I’m having surgery soon!” Whenever she found spare coins around the house, she’d exclaim, “We have 20 pesos. Let’s have my surgery so I can go to school!”

Twenty pesos is less than 50 cents. The next three years went by with no hope of surgery.

This story is about making impossible things possible, which is what happens when partners like you say “yes” to helping kids like Jocy heal with CURE.

A DREAM RESTORED After a neighbor shared the news that Tebow CURE Children’s Hospital of the Philippines could provide surgical care at no cost to the family, Jocy made the hours-long journey with her mom and aunt. As she entered

Burns on Jocy's arms and shoulders did not heal properly. Before surgery at CURE, she endured limited mobility and was often mocked.

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the hospital, the lifetime of pain she’d already lived was visible. So was her spirited determination to receive the life-changing surgery she always believed she’d have.

The operating room within a CURE hospital has been called a holy place, a place where God’s people demonstrate the gospel by restoring the broken and serving children made vulnerable by disability. Dr. Tim Mead, who led the surgeries to successfully restore mobility to Jocy’s arms, agrees.

“Surgery is where I live,” he says. “Part of the way I worship is doing what God called me to do.”

A GIRL TRANSFORMED After her surgeries, when Jocy was officially cleared to return home, she could shovel sand, throw a ball, and draw a picture.

“My arms are straight!” she exclaimed.

Today, Jocy is a girl transformed. She now rides a bike, attends school, and dreams of becoming a doctor someday. She says, “I want to help other children with disabilities just as I have been helped.”

This is the kind of transformation you make possible with every gift to CURE. CUREkids like Jocy are free today because you followed God's call to give. Thank you!

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After surgery, Jocy can freely move her arms, ride a bike, and attend school.

Scan to watch our award-winning documentary, Modern Day Miracles, which featured Jocy.

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“

I want to help other children with disabilities just as I have been helped." ­–Jocy

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ON THE FRONTLINES

Highlighting healthcare workers serving CURE patients around the world

A Servant in God’s Service D

r. Cyril Ilho Moyo understands the weight of living with a disability. He’s carried it.

Dr. Moyo grew up with a young cousin who had clubfoot, and he carried him to school because, in rural areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a disability puts everything in jeopardy—education, livelihood, survival.

“In the village, running is life,” Dr. Moyo says. “Running to get water. Running to get food. Running to get to school.

So, any deformity impairing your mobility is a problem.”

Dr. Moyo recalls his family’s fruitless search to find a mission hospital equipped to provide treatment. “I experienced with [my cousin] the stigma, the pain, and the desperation,” he says.

Perhaps this is why at school, Dr. Moyo became drawn to fixing—and restoring—broken things.

He thought he might become a mechanic.

“God has made me like a mechanic,” he says.

“But instead of repairing metal, I am repairing bones.”

FROM CONGO TO CURE The path to becoming an orthopedic surgeon in one of the most underresourced regions of the world is so limited that Zambia has only 1.1 surgical specialists per 100,000 people.

(For comparison, the United States has 54.)

Dr. Moyo believes God orchestrated his footsteps, which led him to study orthopedics and trauma surgery at Uganda’s Makerere University, to complete various fellowships around the world, and then to work with CURE. 16

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In the village, running is life.

Running to get water. Running to get food. Running to get to school. So, any deformity impairing your mobility is a problem.”

– Dr. Cyril Ilho Moyo

After training and serving with CURE’s hospitals in Niger and Uganda, Dr. Moyo now serves as an orthopedic surgeon at CURE Zambia. Generous support from partners like you makes it possible for him to perform the orthopedic surgeries that restore mobility—and hope—to children with treatable disabilities like Dorcas.

Dr. Moyo (right) has served with CURE Zambia for 17 years, performing hundreds of surgeries annually.

She was born with clubfoot, a condition that kept her from school and made walking difficult and painful.

After two successful surgeries, Dorcas’s feet are straight and she’s walking into a bright future.

TRAINING TO MULTIPLY IMPACT Because there are hundreds of thousands more children with treatable disabilities like Dorcas throughout Zambia, Dr. Moyo helps train approximately four orthopedic surgeons each year. “We train more people because as much as we try our best to cover the whole country, we can’t. So, empowering others to do the same work is a blessing to the whole nation.”

Dr. Moyo’s impact extends beyond Zambia— back to the DRC—where he eventually returned to surgically correct his cousin’s clubfoot. Today, that cousin is a successful lawyer.

Dorcas before surgery

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Dorcas after surgery

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Dr. Moyo now realizes that, from the beginning, God always intended for him to mend things, to model the gospel by redeeming what’s broken. He says, “When I look back, I say, ‘God knew who He wanted me to be, and I'm just a servant for His service.’”

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QA &

with

DR. PAUL PENLEY of the Kingdom Giving Fund 18

VISION PARTNERS Highlighting CURE partners who help heal the sick and proclaim the kingdom of God

We caught up with Paul Penley, Chief Investment Officer for the Kingdom Giving Fund. He shared why they are partnering with CURE on a project that will have a global impact.

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When Jesus healed people, it wasn’t just to make them better.

It was to make them closer to God. I see CURE reenacting this very ministry model today.”

– Dr. Paul Penley

Q We’re so grateful to have

your partnership! Why did you decide to support CURE? The Kingdom Giving Fund looks for the most effective ministries around the world.

We do serious homework on the organizations we consider, overturning every stone to see what’s happening on the inside. We ask the question, “Which ministries have substantive, measurable outcomes and a plan to scale their impact?”

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Q Finding committed donors to support technical infrastructure projects can be challenging. Yet, the Kingdom Giving Fund is doing just that with CURE. Tell us why.

Because we have huge confidence in CURE, we began to ask how we can raise the trajectory to reach thousands more kids. Medical A

directors at all eight of CURE’s hospitals affirmed that moving from paper recordkeeping to electronic medical records (EMR) to track patient care from intake to discharge would be the single biggest catalyst to serving more kids.

In low- and middle-income countries, EMR systems are almost nonexistent. Yet, they would dramatically increase hospital efficiency and increase the number of life-changing surgeries done.

The Kingdom Giving Fund has awarded its largest grant ever to CURE International to develop this electronic medical records system. And best of all,

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When it comes to which organizations are solving problems and remaining until those problems are

eradicated, we find CURE not only recruits world-class surgeons but also trains them in countries where they are needed the most. This strengthens the local healthcare workers and systems that bring lasting change.

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VISION PARTNERS

Electronic records allow CURE staff like John Wanda (left) to better serve patients.

CURE will make this system available to other hospitals throughout the world—so the impact only multiplies.

Q Why should Christians pay

attention to the needs and well-being of the disabled community?

As I was getting my PhD in New Testament, I began looking at Jesus’s healing miracles and I noticed He focused on resolving permanent disabilities, not temporary ailments. Why? In the Old Testament, God commanded all His people to worship Him at three major festivals a year, but religious leaders in Jesus’s day had decided to prevent the deaf, the mute, the blind, and anyone who couldn’t walk on their own two feet from full participation. The physically disabled in Jesus’s day were excluded from the temple.

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Paul Penley visits Uganda to see ministry impact firsthand.

In Acts 3, when Peter and John are on the way to the temple, they pass a crippled man who asks if they can spare money. Instead, they heal the man in Jesus’s name. What’s the first thing this man does when he can walk for the very first time? He enters the temple and praises God. What Jesus did when He healed people and what His followers did when they healed people wasn't just to make them physically better. It was to make them closer to God. I see CURE reenacting Jesus’s very ministry model today. The combination of physical and spiritual restoration is the example Jesus set for us to follow.

WHAT IS THE KINGDOM GIVING FUND? The Kingdom Giving Fund is an alliance of generous families who have invested more than $31 million since 2019 into projects that advance the gospel around the world with organizations like World Relief, Awana, Bible Project—and now CURE International. The Kingdom Giving Fund has awarded CURE its largest grant to date after extensive interviews, document review, and site visits.

Visit kingdomgivingfund.com to learn more.

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A new electronic medical records system means doctors like Tirunesh Busha, Pediatric Anesthesiologist at CURE Ethiopia, can better serve children.

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MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

reaching the remote Your support sends care to the ends of the earth.

BY JUSTIN NARDUCCI President/CEO

In the parable of the lost sheep (Matthew 18:12-14), Jesus speaks of a shepherd going out into the hills to search for a sheep who has wandered away from his flock. At CURE, we follow this example, traveling into remote regions to search for children with disabilities who are in desperate need of medical and spiritual support.

In addition to providing world-class surgical care through our network of eight charitable children’s hospitals, we send our clinical and ministry teams out beyond hospital walls to find children in need, serve them where they are, and bring those who require surgery to one of our hospitals.

This has always been an important part of our ministry, but as we move into the coming year, we are even more committed to partnerships and strategies that prioritize outreach.

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We have designated funding specifically for conducting mobile clinics in hard-to-reach places, such as refugee camps, conflict zones, and remote villages, to serve even more children. We’ve developed partnerships with World Vision and Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) in addition to connecting with local organizations that serve people with disabilities.

Working with partners like MAF, CURE can go even farther by flying doctors to reach those most desperate for care—like baby Patricia in South Sudan (see page 9). She was able to have surgery at CURE Uganda, and she receives the critical follow-up care she needs through a CURE mobile clinic.

Your support allows us to go to the ends of the earth to reach “the least of these” (Matt. 25:40). Thank you for joining CURE in following God’s call to those who are left behind, marginalized, and unseen.

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CURE's medical and ministry care reaches beyond the hospital walls and into local communities, like this one in rural Malawi.

YOUR GIFT CAN

Joshua

treated for bowed legs at CURE Zambia

before

after

Your partnership makes it possible for kids like Joshua to receive highly specialized surgery and experience God’s love at no cost to patients or families living in poverty.

HERE’S HOW IT WORKS:

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KIDS ARE WAITING FOR SURGERIES

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YOUR GIFT FUNDS THEIR SURGERIES

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TO SPONSOR CHILDREN’S SURGERIES:

THEY LEARN ALL ABOUT JESUS

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LIVES ARE TRANSFORMED!

VISIT cure.org/donate CALL (616) 512-3104 EMAIL greg.forney@cure.org 23

US Postage PAID Nonprofit Org PERMIT # CURE Int'l

70 Ionia Ave SW, Suite 200 Grand Rapids, MI 49503

< FIRST AND LAST NAME ADDRESS LINE 1 ADDRESS LINE 2 CITY, ST ZIP >

HEAL THE SICK & PROCLAIM THE KINGDOM OF GOD Luke 9:2 CURE International is a Christian nonprofit organization that operates a global network of eight pediatric hospitals in Africa and the Philippines, providing world-class surgical and intentional ministry care for children living with treatable disabilities.

(616) 512-3105 cure.org