LEMOYNE, Penn., June 13, 2008 – While international governments met in Paris this week to discuss raising $50 billion in aid for Afghanistan, one U.S. charity is making a difference in rebuilding the country’s entire medical infrastructure, one donor dollar or signature at a time.

CURE International, which provides medical care through teaching hospitals in developing nations around the world, has received commendations from the Afghan government for the training and health care it provides at a CURE hospital in Kabul. Since 2005, CURE has not only been treating patients successfully who likely would have died without CURE’s medical expertise, but it has been training local Afghan medical personnel in order to bring health care in that nation up to first world standards.

As a charity organization, CURE is dependent on donor dollars. Because of the power of numbers, multiple individuals making small donations can have a big impact. Even $5 or $10 can be used effectively at the CURE Kabul Hospital, to provide life-giving nourishment to infants in the neonatal intensive care unit, or to help pay for casts for children born with club foot, a congenital deformity in which the feet are twisted or bent.

A new initiative made possible by a generous CURE donor allows individuals to virtually “sign a cast” for a child with club foot. For each signature collected online at www.helpcurenow.org, a $5 donation will be made to CURE’s work around the world, including in Afghanistan.

CURE International, under the leadership of Dr. Scott Harrison, is as well known for its administrative integrity and effectiveness as its medical care. Across the globe, countries have come to trust and depend on CURE International as a model for local facilities often plagued by incompetence and corruption.

This is especially true in Afghanistan, where medicine is 30 years behind the times due to the nation’s history of conflict and Taliban control. After observing CURE’s operation of its Kabul hospital, the Afghan government asked the charity to take control of its family health facility, as well.

The result has been another success for CURE, giving it even more influence in training local Afghan staff, and therefore improving the nation’s entire medical infrastructure. In addition, CURE provides training through fellowship and residency programs, whose graduates then become influencers throughout Afghanistan.

“A little really can go a long way, especially in a country as battered as Afghanistan,” said Harrison. “What we provide more than anything, is a sense of hope, which is free to give, but priceless in its return. I hope the $50 billion the Afghan government is seeking is money as well spent.”

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