This month, they connected the old Operating Room building to the new wing, demolishing a wall and relocating the scrub sink, launching the beginning of a new era for the team.

For the past eleven years, CURE Uganda has built trust and established a reputation for providing high-quality neurosurgical care for children. They're a specialty teaching hospital that treats the neurosurgical needs of children, with an emphasis on hydrocephalus, neural tube defects, spina bifida, epilepsy and brain tumors.

These new facilities, and Dr. Peter Ssenyonga's arrival, enable them to expand services to include adults also needing neurosurgical interventions. Right now, these life-saving operations are limited to Kampala (Uganda) and Nairobi (Kenya) and are prohibitively expensive for most East Africans.

Once the construction is completed, the CURE Uganda team will offer these services for much less than anywhere else on the continent. Two of the best trained neurosurgeons working with CURE, Dr. John Mugamba and Dr. Ssenyonga, will be taking on the anticipated workload along with an experienced staff. Roughly 65% have served with CURE for more than 5 years, and a quarter have been with CURE for a decade or more.

As a result of their reputation for quality care, patients are coming from all over Uganda, as well as Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, and DR Congo. Instead of Ugandans going to Nairobi for medical care, Kenyans are coming to Mbale. Referrals have come from as far away as West Africa and Mauritius.

CURE's goal is to have Ugandans treating Ugandans, provide the best quality medical care, and keep shillings in Uganda. That way, they're part of the solution to the healthcare question in Uganda.

Since it opened in 2000, more than 8,900 surgeries have been performed at the CURE Uganda hospital. CURE Uganda has evolved and grown into a leading hospital on the continent. Most importantly, their patients experience the life-changing message of God's love for them as they receive the surgical treatments they need.

Want to follow the story of one of the kids? Click here.

CURE spoke to over 10,000 people at the concert, sharing their mission of "healing kids and proclaiming the Gospel." Using a live Skype broadcast, they introduced crowds to their CUREkids coordinator in Honduras and Carlos, a boy who recently had foot surgery to correct his condition. Festival-goers also met Jon Foreman, the lead singer of Switchfoot, in the CURE VIP tent. Foreman chatted with fans, signed autographs, and performed an acoustic set.

Through these efforts, along with with speaker Tony Nolan's commendation, CURE raised enough funding to give each of the 15 children a much-needed surgery.

In the developing world, children born with leg deformities or clubfoot are often crippled for life. While clubfoot is the world's most common congenital birth defect, affecting over 200,000 newborns each year, it is curable. Kids under the age of 2 can be cured permanently–without the trauma and dangers of surgery–by using the Ponseti Method, a casting process used to straighten the feet.

Treatments or surgery for kids in the developing world is often just not available. But since 2006, CURE has healed more than 10,000 kids of clubfoot. Click here to see kids waiting for surgery and a chance for a normal life.

CURE International reports that their ministry is this year's featured cause on the tour featuring Family Force 5, Disciple, Icon for Hire, and others.

Each night of the tour, CURE will be working to save the life of at least one child afflicted with hydrocephalus who is receiving care at CURE's hospital in Uganda.

Hydrocephalus is a deadly brain condition that affects nearly 400,000 newborns each year globally. Over 310,000 of these children will be born in the developing world with limited or no access to the critical lifesaving care the condition requires.

CURE's hospital in Uganda will save the lives of nearly 1,000 of these children this year alone.

Each night of the Music With A Mission Tour, video footage from the CURE hospital of a child afflicted with hydrocephalus and their family will be showcased. The footage will embrace where the family comes from, what they thought would happen to their child because of the condition, and how the care and compassion they've experienced at CURE has impacted their lives.

The tour is traveling across the country with 25 concerts. As you attend, you'll not only help save a child physically, but also allow their entire family to hear about Christ.

Click here for concert information.

The resulting flash floods hit the Nigerien capital, Niamey,
displacing up to 75,000 people. CURE
International Vice President of Operations Andy Groop says the Niger River to
burst its banks in sections.

Although their hospital is also in Niamey, it's in the northern
part of the city, and the flooding took place in the southern side of the
river. Groop explains, "There is a low-lying
flat plain area, and many homes, as we understand, have been destroyed and crops
have been overrun by the flood."

The facilities came through without a scratch, but Groop says
that the impact of the disaster has already been felt by some of the staff. "A couple of our staff are displaced
from their homes. It's unclear at this point what level or condition their
homes will be in when they're able to return." 

Groop adds that some of the staff members' children have been
evacuated from their boarding school, run by SIM (Serving In Mission). He
spoke Tuesday morning with the wife of CURE Niger's executive director to get
filled in on the details. (sic) "The Sahel Academy is a
missionary boarding school. There are a couple hundred kids there in
attendance, so we're having to house some of these children. At this point,
their dormitories are closed due to flooding."

Additionally, Niger's government now faces the Sahel region food
crisis, brought on by high market prices and poor harvests, a refugee crisis
triggered by conflict in neighboring Mali, a cholera outbreak, and now devastating floods.

Groop acknowledges that the resources
just aren't there to respond. "It
certainly is an extraordinary challenge for all of us who are seeking to
provide the humanitarian aid and relief to Niger, the poorest country in the
world. It seems to be, at times, a forgotten place."

CURE's hospital in Niger is the only one of its kind in the
entire country, offering specialty surgical care for handicapped children with
a variety of conditions. Some patients
may have a tough time getting to the facility for the help they need. 

Outpatient clinics and follow-up appointment schedules could
be severely disrupted. However, Groop
notes that "Jesus
said, 'Pray the Lord of the Harvest to bring more workers.' It's amazing to me
that the Son of God would offer this advice to His followers and to His
disciples, and yet, the message really
is still the same." Despite the fact that they're not an aid agency,
CURE's team will offer comfort and hope to all they assist.

In the meantime, they'll wait for the floods to recede, take stock
of the damages, and help people, where
possible. The crises are ongoing, so needs
assessments are frequent. "Pray for
the provision of these resources in finance, in time, and in spiritual
strength and comfort as our team there seeks to minister in the Name of
Christ."

Our Featured Links Section has more about CURE Niger.

It's the CURE International One Child Challenge. Here's how it works. Go to CURE.org. When you click "Follow a child's story", a donor will give $1 to that child's surgery. You'll get updates before, during, and after a surgery that will change that child's life forever so that you can share the experience with your friends.

MNN's Greg Yoder went to http://www.CURE.org and is following Leta. Leta is looking forward to getting back to school after his operation here at CURE Ethiopia. He is in Grade 1, and he plans on becoming a doctor when he grows up. This charming guy has been through a lot with a leg and foot deformity. Because his right leg is slightly longer than the left, it's caused him a lot of problems walking, and other kids make fun of him.

When Leta is at school or playing around his home, people called him "Shiba" which means "crippled," and it hurts his feelings. His family has attempted to get him healed before, but their efforts were futile. When he was 4 years old, he had an operation at another hospital, but it did nothing for his condition.
Leta's parents are farmers, and they are happy to have found a place where their son can receive the necessary care without using all of their funds. They're ready for a change with this operation. It won't be long before Leta is running around pain-free and proud of his legs.

You can join me in supporting Leta, or you can find another child to support. The great thing about CURE is that not only are the doctors and nurses helping with the physical needs of these children, but they're also sharing their faith with the whole family.

Follow these children, or support CURE's work at http://www.CURE.org.

Medical director for CURE International in Afghanistan is Dr. Rick
Manning. Their facility is fairly close
to the U.S. Embassy, which did not appear to be among the major targets over the
weekend. He explains, "There were a
number of attacks across Kabul city. I think at least four and then in a
number of provinces as well. They all occurred approximately at the same time–they demonstrated that there was some coordinating effort between all of
them." 

The
attacks seemed to be focused on a diplomatic neighborhood and the area around
Parliament. Major targets included the German, British, and Canadian embassies,
the headquarters of Afghanistan's NATO-led forces, and the World Bank Office.

18 hours after the attacks began, rebels who had holed up overnight in two
buildings were overcome by heavy gunfire from Afghan-led forces, and pre-dawn
air assaults on Monday from U.S.-led coalition helicopters. Manning says in the aftermath, "They
(the insurgents) were not really effective, in terms of injuring too many
people. But I guess they were effective in sending a message: when desired, a
fairly large effort could be put together."

It's not the first attack in a green zone. The U.S. Embassy was targeted last
September. At that time, there were
questions about the safety protocols for CURE's partners. Since the step-up in security, Manning says,
"We have kind of built-in mechanisms to deal with this already, but pretty
much, we operated status quo."  

The disturbance over the weekend caused a few logistical
issues, however. "There were a number of staff that could
not get into the hospital because of various road blockages. But in that case,
we just notified the staff that were there and asked if they could stay
overtime." 

Among the reasons CURE hasn't been targeted: the
facility is not perceived as an outsider. "The Afghan staff is numbering
over 300 in our hospital, currently. The 
International staff is numbering at five, or less." Manning adds that living in a war zone means
"unfortunately, the Afghan staff
has been so hardened that in a sense, they shrug this stuff off a lot easier
than we do."

International
staff has been present for seven years. They've
pretty much learned the ropes and how to respond to an increased threat,
explains Manning. "We just
kind of 'hunker down.' We don't traverse
the city during these kinds of times. Of
course, it always causes a lot of concern–more concern with us because we're
not as used to it as the Afghan staff."

In
2005, the Afghan Ministry of Public Health invited CURE International to assume
control of both a partially-restored hospital and a nearby outpatient clinic in
Kabul. By the end of that first year, both facilities were fully operational
and serving more than 8,000 patients each month.

In
addition to providing top quality care, the hospital also offers training
programs for doctors and nurses to further elevate the level of care provided
in the future. Programs include obstetrics and gynecology, pathology,
orthopedic surgery, general surgery, plastic surgery and general practice.

CURE describes itself as a non-profit organization delivering
life-changing surgery and the good news of God's love to children and families
suffering with curable physical disabilities.
"We don't proselytize a lot to them openly. It's actually forbidden. They know that a
conversion to Christianity in Afghanistan is against the law, and to those
people, that means a life sentence," says Manning. However, it's one way to bring the hope of Christ into a difficult
region. "We just live in front of them; we show
them that we love them and that we're there with them,
suffering through these circumstances."

That hope CURE shares is appealing to the Afghani culture. "The
Afghan people are salt of the earth people; they love their families. The ones
being portrayed in the media are the extremists, but the majority of them just
love people. The majority of them are just searching for truth, so I think we
need to pray for that."

Pray for opportunities for the Gospel. Pray, too,
for safety for the staff. Living in a
war zone takes its toll whether or not staff realize it. "We have never been targeted, but I think
haphazard kind of craziness that's all around makes getting injured by
something more likely, so safety is one [prayer request]. Another one is just perseverance in
terms of being able to stay there and stay focused in these kinds of situations."

There's more about CURE's partnership in Afghanistan
at our Featured Links Section.

The CURE Ethiopia Children's Hospital (CECH) is a pediatric orthopedic teaching hospital in Addis Ababa. Established in 2008, the hospital is a state-of-the-art, 60-bed hospital complex that provides modern medical and surgical care to the physically disabled children of Ethiopia.

Just recently, CURE launched CUREkids in Ethiopia, telling the stories of the kid's they're serving in their hospital. The goal? To encourage you to get involved in their journey.

To kick off this new community, the Rees-Jones Foundation has offered a generous $50,000 matching gift to support specific patients in Ethiopia through CUREkids!

CURE hopes it will help them reach their goal of 100 surgeries in Ethiopia. As you support CURE's work in Ethiopia by helping a specific child on their Web site, you can have a life-changing impact on a child with a curable disability. When you do, it'll be matched dollar-for-dollar.

In addition, CECH fills a critical need for an orthopedic residency program in Ethiopia, providing training in pediatric and advanced orthopedic techniques, and is an international COSECSA accredited training facility.

The hospital has a dual focus on pediatric orthopedics and pediatric plastic reconstruction. The hospital treats disabilities such as cleft lip and palate, clubfoot, limb deformities, and other physical disabilities.

CECH brings modern, up-to-date standards and equipment, including first world anesthesia medications and monitoring, intra-operative fluoroscopy, and digital xray.

Since the fall of 2006, in collaboration with Smile Train, CURE has developed cleft lip and cleft palate surgical programs in most of CURE's hospitals worldwide. These programs not only provide transformative surgery for children, but counseling to the families. This is where Christ can make a difference.

If you'd like to have your gift matched dollar-for-dollar, click here.

The unrest came at a time when the Afghan government hoped
to implement a plan to abolish private security companies by today.
That, in turn, has left the private groups doing Western development
work exposed as they try to replace the guards that protected aid workers.

CURE International has a hospital in Kabul. Are the teams there "sitting ducks" for militant
attacks? CURE International's Joel Worrall says they're not in the same boat as
the other aid groups that will be affected by the change. He explains, "There is some sense in which we're bringing a level of outside Western
influence into what the medical practices, surgical practices, mean in that
country. But I think that we're also very much seen as sort of a part of the
community that we're serving."

Worrall goes on to say that being part of the community means
that "the vast majority of the people that we employ in our hospital,
including much of our security staff, are Afghan nationals." That's not to say they don't take security
of the patients and staff seriously. "We
need a context of security to be able to operate and to be able to serve these
vulnerable people, but at this point, we're not concerned about what that
change is going to mean for CURE."

CURE hospitals bring in skilled and experienced western
ex-pats to work alongside of national professionals, bolstering the skills,
training, and standards of the hospital. They're doing development work that holds a high value. "We hold a
reputation with those people that is regarded not just in Afghanistan, but in
Iran, in Kazakhstan, and in all of the other countries around there. You
understand that if you really want to strive for excellence as a medical
practitioner, you go train at the CURE facility."

Worrall says the CURE hospital in Kabul wears an Afghan
face. The health of women and children
is among the worst in the world, and the recent violence has made people afraid
to travel. Oddly, that is exactly what
stands their team apart from other hospitals. "For mothers who have been dealing with horrendous fistula issues,
for premature babies that are born there, for the kids that we're treating that
have reconstructive surgery need: when they get to the hospital, it is a little
bit like entering into an oasis."

CURE International accepted an invitation from the Afghan
Ministry of Public Health to assume control of both a partially-restored
hospital and a nearby outpatient clinic in Kabul in January 2005. Since the fall of 2006, in collaboration with
Smile Train, CURE has developed cleft lip and cleft palate surgical training
programs in most of CURE's hospitals worldwide.

All of this has been done because of CURE's commitment to
serve the people of Afghanistan in a way that glorifies God. Worrall explains, "We're committed to abiding by the laws
of the land, but people know that we're there as Christians on behalf of Jesus
Christ, and that we're unashamed to talk about our faith and why we're there,
but we're not proselytizing."

Since then, it has grown and evolved. Executive director of the
facility, Derek Johnson, says the success of the mission in Uganda has surpassed
everyone's expectations. The statistics for the last decade alone are
staggering: 40,000 children seen, nearly 10,000 life-saving surgeries provided,
and more than 8,000 people with a closer relationship to God.

When you add in the advancements made toward the treatment of hydrocephalus,
the impact CURE has made has laid the groundwork for a long life in Uganda.

However broad the vision started, 2011 proved that it's time to think even
bigger. CURE is out of room, and the
needs continue to grow. They are doing what they can with the team
they have: one neurosurgeon, two operating rooms, and 42 beds, but they need
more hands.

CURE is taking steps toward accommodating growth. Dr. Peter Ssenyonga is returning to the team
after having finished six years of neurosurgery training in South Africa. For
the first time in six years, there will be two full-time neurosurgeons on
staff.

They've also begun the expansion project at the hospital. With funding from
the American Schools and Hospitals Abroad program under USAID, they're adding a
ten-bed intensive care unit (ICU), another operating room, and expanding the
outpatients department.

CURE Uganda is building so they can deliver the highest quality care for some
of the most vulnerable children in East Africa. Despite the excitement of the healthy growth,
the team also leaves a lot of room for
God to work, often in unexpected ways.

Referring to some of the children that he treats, Dr. Mugamba often talks
about leaving room for God to come in and move and perform the miraculous. Some
of the babies that come through CURE'S doors are in such poor condition that
even the most talented and experienced neurosurgeons shudder.

However, day after day, child after child, miracles are happening. Children
without good prognoses go home only to return several months later, laughing,
crawling, and playing. Time and again,
the team has seen what happens when they let go and God does the rest.

Says Johnson, "As I moved through the hospital this morning, amid the
hustle and bustle of our usual workday, I noticed one of our nurses quietly
praying with a mother and her baby. That is us intentionally allowing God to
come in." As CURE starts the
next decade of outreach in Uganda, Johnson adds, their team will "continue to
keep eternity in focus, our expectations high, leaving room for God to come in
and move as He wishes."

CURE reports ToonUps have created a fun and engaging Facebook game called "A Better World." Through mid-January, by playing the game and sharing positive messages and expressions with other players, you can help to heal 10 kids through CURE.

If CURE is able to reach 1 million positive expressions in the game by mid-January, ToonUps will donate $10,000 to heal 10 children through CUREkids. The good news is they're already at more than 600,000 expressions.

CURE is asking you to consider taking a few short minutes to sign up and play. If you have a Facebook account and a little extra time, it will make not only a physical difference for these kids but maybe even an eternal difference as CURE does this work with the love of Christ. That great thing is: you'll also have fun doing it,

To help CURE a child, click here.