Kenya
Established: 1998
Specialty: Pediatric Orthopedics
Number of Doctors: 5
Number of Nurses: 22
Number of Beds: 30
Patients seen annually: 8,000
Number of operations annually: 2,500
In 1998, CURE International, in cooperation with the African Inland Church, opened the AIC CURE International Children's Hospital in Kijabe, Kenya. The hospital provides medical and surgical care to physically disabled children and presents the Gospel through word and deed. The hospital provides the best medical and spiritual care possible and expert medical training.
In the Masai language, Kijabe means "Place of the Wind." Kijabe is one of the largest mission stations in the world and is the home of Africa Inland Church Kijabe Hospital, a 205-bed general hospital. The AIC CURE International Children's Hospital, located on the Kijabe, campus is a standalone 30 bed hospital that specializes in the treatment and care of children with physical disabilities.
AIC-CURE International Children's Hospital was Africa's first orthopedic/ pediatric teaching hospital for physically disabled children. The hospital provides care for children suffering from clubfoot, cleft lip and cleft palate, curvature of the spine and disabilities stemming from polio, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and other congenital abnormalities.
AIC CURE International Children's Hospital serves approximately 8,000 children and performs approximately 2,500 surgeries each year. The hospital also operates mobile clinics that travel to remote regions to provide follow-up care and identify children who can be treated at the hospital. The major programs of the hospital are:
Clinical Care
In 2005, more than 1,300 children were admitted to AIC CURE International Children's Hospital. 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. The hospital also maintains a busy outpatient practice, providing care to more than 600 children each month.
The Cure Clubfoot Program
The Cure Clubfoot Program is an innovative non-surgical treatment and training program for the correction of clubfoot in young children. Clubfoot is a congenital condition that occurs in about one or two of every thousand children born in Kenya and is characterized by a deformed and/or twisted foot or feet. Left untreated, clubfoot often becomes a crippling condition. The Cure Clubfoot program trains 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. More than 100 children have been treated for clubfoot with the Ponseti method at Kijabe, giving them ability to walk normally and live a full and productive life. Correction of clubfoot in older children often requires surgery.
Partnership with Smile Train
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. These programs have been piloted in Afghanistan and in the Dominican Republic. These programs will train 20 surgeons in the correction of cleft lip/palate surgery each year.
Expansion at Kijabe
Thanks to a grant from USAID (US Agency for International Development), and a private foundation, CURE Kenya will be upgrading its operating theatres, building a conference and training center, and adding on-campus resident housing. These building additions and upgrades will enhance our ability to train surgeons in Kenya.
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