The hospital serves approximately 8,000 children and performs approximately 2,500 surgeries each year.
Kenya (MNN) ― Kijabe, Kenya is home to the AIC-CURE International Children's Hospital. CURE's Christine Kithome (kih-TOE-mee) says they are an orthopedic/pediatrics teaching hospital for physically disabled children.
As such, they send out mobile clinic teams to identify kids who need help. "We are having several mobile clinics with which we visit remote areas. We get a team of about 12 people, doctors, the physical therapists, a spiritual team, because we normally say we do 50/50 ministry."
The team includes pastors and church leaders who begin building relationship with the children and their families. AIC-CURE International Children's Hospital serves approximately 8,000 children and performs approximately 2,500 surgeries each year.
Their major programs include clinical care, the clubfoot program and CURE smiles, to correct cleft lip and cleft palates. The CURE Clubfoot Program is a non-surgical treatment and training program for the correction of clubfoot in young children. They train physicians and physiotherapists in the Ponseti Method for the correction of clubfeet. This method uses physical manipulation and plaster casting techniques to correct clubfoot in young children.
CURE is also developing cleft lip and cleft palate surgical training programs, in cooperation with Smile Train, in most of CURE's hospitals worldwide. These programs will train 20 surgeons in the correction of cleft lip/palate surgery each year.
All told, surgeons at the hospital performed more than 2,500 surgeries including surgeries to correct foot, knee and leg problems, to repair cleft lip, cleft palates and other craniofacial problems, to treat epilepsy, hydrocephalus and neural tube defects, and to release contractures due to burn injuries.
But ministry doesn't stop when the clinic moves on or when the child is released post-surgery. Kithome says discipleship is a normal part of the process, much like medical follow-up. "We normally spend six weeks and then we go back to the same place. After this, people have been doing follow-up to see how far the patient is coming along, and even the new believers, whether they are still getting along with the Christian life."
Their reputation as a Christian ministry continues to grow, easily outpacing the space in the recovery ward. Expansion is the next step. A grant from USAID (US Agency for International Development), CURE Kenya will add two additional operating rooms and 15 more hospital beds. This will provide space for additional surgeries and training.
