Answering the call to serve more children with correctable disabilities, Beit-CURE Children’s Hospital of Zambia (CURE Zambia) celebrated a huge milestone on 1 September 2023 by breaking ground on a new comprehensive cleft care center and the expansion of its children’s ward. The expanded ward will include 15 additional beds.

“We are on a growth trajectory to serve 30 percent more children with correctable disabilities. Our interventions include the medical and spiritual support to the children we serve and their families,” said Frida Kabaso Phiri, CURE Zambia’s Executive Director. “We are grateful to Beit Trust for all they have invested in this hospital to ensure that children with disabilities have a place to receive care and a healthy environment for healing.”

Importance of the Cleft Care Unit

In the past few years, CURE Zambia has recorded a growing number of cleft and other conditions treatable with plastic surgery. In 2022 alone, the hospital conducted over 500 surgical procedures for such conditions.

The center will provide comprehensive care to children living with cleft lip and palate. CURE Zambia’s plastic surgeon, Dr. Meredith Workman, who is currently the country’s only pediatric plastic surgeon, will head the center. Until now, visiting surgeons from the United States performed plastic surgeries during surgical camps at the hospital. Since Dr. Meredith joined CURE in January of this year, she’s performed over 290 surgeries.

“And so we echo this promise now: We’ll be there for you when your child has a disability. We’ll be there for you when your baby has a cleft lip or palate,” Dr. Meredith said during the ceremony. “We’ll be there for you when you hold them before surgery, and we will be there with you every day as you walk to a happier, healthier future.”

 

 

Helping Children in Need

As a hospital, we remain focused on serving more children with correctable disabilities. A well-established and well-resourced comprehensive cleft care unit and more beds in the ward will increase the number of surgeries we provide to vulnerable children with cleft conditions by 30 percent at no cost to their families. It also creates an opportunity for sharing the Word of God to all who visit the hospital. This is all thanks to our generous donors.

Sandra is one of the many children who have received comprehensive cleft care at CURE Zambia. We first met her when she was a year old and struggling to breastfeed because of her cleft lip and palate. This is a common complication for babies with clefts. Children with clefts also often have trouble breathing and speaking and are ostracized by their community.

Now, after life-changing surgery at CURE, Sandra is able to feed without any challenges!

 

 

We give a special thanks to all our donors, partners, and friends who have continued to support CURE’s mission. Their dedication to helping kids like Sandra receive life-changing treatment has improved the quality of life for thousands of children across our network of hospitals.

Click here to learn more about cleft lip and palate and the other conditions we treat.