Our grant partners offer much needed funding.

The Cure Hospital has benefited tremendously from enduring partnerships to address obstetric fistula. Obstetric fistula, where the new mother suffers incontinence, are very common in Afghanistan, since many births occur in the home. With incontinence comes a community that ostracizes the young mother for the rest of her life, because she is unable to control her bladder. These women live in shame, separated from their families and friends. The Fistula Foundation has been a trusted partner since 2009. Their funding has covered nearly 1,600 fistula surgeries. In addition, they fund transportation costs to and from the hospital for patients and families. With their support, the hospital has made critical repairs to its roof, purchased much-needed operating room equipment, built a hostel, and bought an ambulance. In 2021, the Fistula Foundation gave Be Team International additional grants to cover the added expense of treating COVID-19 patients. The Fistula Foundation also awarded special grants to make capital upgrades, install solar power, support hospital staff salaries, and enable Be Team International to extend its impact further into Afghanistan’s remote provinces. They continue supporting a two-day fistula prevention and awareness workshop at our hospital, which attracted 70 midwives from all 34 Afghan provinces in December 2021. They continue to support our fistula surgeons to receive advanced training. All of this has greatly enhanced our ability to prevent, detect and treat women with obstetric fistula, which has brought joy to hundreds of women, their families, and their friends.

The Cure Hospital has been partnering with SMILE Train since 2006. With their funding, the hospital has been able to offer free surgery to nearly 11,000 patients with cleft deformities. SMILE Train has also funded much of the ongoing training of our plastic surgeons and efforts to establish nutritional and speech therapy programs. SMILE Train’s Medical Advisory Board has provided policies, procedures and invaluable guidance so that we can perform high-quality and safe cleft surgical procedures on the many small children who are depending on us.

The Linda Norgrove Foundation shares Be Team International’s commitment to empowering the next generation of female Afghan healthcare providers through capacity building and training. They are funding the annual training expenses for one of our newest female family medicine residents. Previously, the Linda Norgrove Foundation financed the purchase of a digital X-ray machine and paid the cost of medical students’ from several Afghan medical schools to rotate through the hospital for one-month clinical clerkships.

Hope Partnerships International shares Be Team International’s vision to create a sustainable family medicine residency to meet this need and are funding the costs to train one resident. Afghanistan needs healthcare providers capable of meeting a great diversity of medical needs, especially in the country’s remoter regions where the only doctor within a few hours’ drive will often function as pediatrician, obstetrician, internist, and surgeon.