12 Apr How Mercy Ships volunteers are making waves across Africa with CURE International
An incredible new partnership is bringing high-quality care to children in African hospitals.
Mercy Ships teamed up with CURE International, a faith-based health care network, and the partnership is proving a huge success.
Dr Sarah Kwok is one of several long-term volunteers who put themselves forward to use their skills and experience in CURE hospitals in Africa.
Back in June 2019, Dr Sarah signed up for a two-week stint with Mercy Ships as anaesthesia supervisor but she soon decided to stay long term.
Now, she’s spent six weeks working at the CURE Children’s Hospital of Uganda, where she treated patients in need of specialised neurological care.
With the CURE International anaesthesia team, she has been providing high-quality intensive care for young patients.
Dr Sarah said, “The children often have complex neurological problems, which makes caring for them challenging. By walking alongside the team here, we are setting high standards of care and ensuring the patients get the very best they deserve. The team is transforming lives and giving patients a future filled with hope and expectations of a normal life.”
In addition to treating patients, Dr Sarah helped to train nurses and doctors at the hospital, as well as medical students at the local university. The CURE Children’s Hospital of Uganda is a teaching centre for paediatric neurosurgery in sub-Saharan Africa and so shares in Mercy Ships’ vision of leaving a lasting legacy.
“The hospital is a regional centre of excellence and frequently has visitors from all over Africa coming to learn their surgical techniques,” said Dr Sarah.
“CURE Uganda is dedicated to training the next generation of doctors, neurosurgeons, and anaesthetists.”
The ability to continue helping under-served patients during this time is an experience Dr Sarah doesn’t take for granted.
She added, “I’m so grateful that Mercy Ships has collaborated with CURE so that together, we can continue to provide medical care to the forgotten poor in various countries in Africa.”
Thank you CURE International and Dr Sarah for all you are doing!
By working with CURE International, we can offer treatment to vulnerable children in African countries that lack the medical infrastructure and safe surgical care they need.
And thanks to partnerships like this our organisations can continue addressing the global surgery crisis and provide essential services to patients who need immediate, life-changing care.
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