Imagine wanting a child and being happier than you ever imagined when you are gifted a beautiful baby girl. You believed she would be perfect, but something is different. She cries all of the time, and nothing you do can stop it. As she develops, you learn she can't speak. She can't articulate any words and her head swells every single day. Your culture has lead you to believe that she is cursed, and that you must kill her using traditional African medicine and traditions because something is taboo about her. You feel helpless as your vision of your perfect baby did not include hydrocephalus, something that has made your child sick and that you cannot afford.
Imagine being a 13-year-old boy and remembering being three-years-old and getting fuel on your shirt. All is well, until nearby your sister begins to play with matches. The worse scenario happens and you find yourself with massive burns. You get taken to the hospital, but the medical practice where you live, in the Philippines, is under developed and your burns are not treated properly. Your skin gets stuck together and continues to grow this way, so you one day have very limited mobility in your arms at all. You grow up having no friends in school and your whole life is negatively affected. To make your situation worse, your mom is raising you and your siblings on your own and cannot afford to treat your condition.
Now imagine being able to treat kids like Joy and Juvannie, positively changing their lives for forever. Imagine opening 30 medical facilities all over the world that treats these children free of cost with the help of generous donors and volunteers. All while proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching them that they are more loved than they can ever imagine.
CURE international imagined this, and became it. Established in 1996, CURE has been effectively treating children with treatable disabilities in underdeveloped countries, performing over 204,000 successful surgeries. Their miracles in physically treating the children opened the doors for spiritually healing them as well, in ways that are culturally sensitive and affirmative in their most needed times.
CURE couldn't be successful if it weren't for the volunteers that raise money for the kids and travel to visit the facilities they are being treated at. East Carolina University now has it's own chapter of CURE University, a program designed to get college students involved by raising money for the kids and awareness for the cause while praying for them. Founded by passionate students Maddy Day and Cheyenne Kellen, ECU's Chapter of CURE is enthused to get involved, and excited to see what it can accomplish in it's first semester at ECU. I truly believe this will be a club for someone of any major, and will serve especially beneficial to those entering the medical field, those wanting to grow their faith, and those wanting to stop imagining helping kids in developing countries and begin making it a reality.
CURE ECU would love to have you follow us on our journey as we no longer have to imagine being a part of such an influential cause, and we would love to have you join us on it as well. Follow our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/ecucure/?fref=ts, to keep up with the dates of meetings, events, and things we are doing to stay involved and be sure to add us on OrgSync! Even if you don't attend East Carolina, we would love to have your support and share the stories of the children who make us who we are. You can keep up with their stories at:cure.org/curekids. We look forward to welcoming you as part of our family, Pirates on a mission to heal children in developing countries, volunteering so they can walk, speak, and live normal lives.
