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In December 2007, CURE International, a United States-based Christian medical NGO, broke ground on a $16.5 million state-of-the art hospital in Shepherd's Field in Bethlehem.

In addition to providing medical and special surgical care to children and their families, this cooperative project, which involves Christians, Muslims and Jews, is a model for peace in the region.

At the groundbreaking ceremony, Dr. Scott Harrison, president and CEO of CURE International, was joined on the platform by the Governor of Bethlehem and the Mayor of the surrounding Beit Sahour municipality for an hour-long ceremony that was attended by nearly 150 local dignitaries and residents. The event ended with a ceremonial tree-planting and prayer from religious leaders of several faiths, including Protestant, Greek Orthodox and Muslim.

"As the world focuses on bringing peace to this volatile region, CURE International is leading the way as an agent of reconciliation by building a hospital to bring desperately needed healing, hope and transformation for children and their families throughout the West Bank," said Dr. Scott Harrison, president and CEO of CURE International.

"We don't need to wait for national leaders to come to an agreement on how to work out their problems," said Dr. Harrison. "Today, we can begin working together on this cardiac and orthopedic hospital that fills a major need in the West Bank, where medical care is severely limited."

"This place is not only the Shepherd's Field, but we are also the shepherds of our Arab Christian tradition and heritage, of which we are proud," said His Excellency Salah Al-Ta'mari, Governor of Bethlehem. "This project is crucial in fulfilling our society's needs -- and those of our children -- and cooperation is essential.

"Bethlehem is not just a holy place, it is a message of peace, tolerance, freedom and acceptance of all people -- we set the example for co-existence," Gov. Al-Ta'mari said. "God bless the cooperative efforts of all of the people on this project, which will help us overcome the occupation history to ensure peace for our future."

The Honorable Hani Al-Hayek, Mayor of Beit Sahour Municipality surrounding the hospital site, said, "Our message is, 'This is the peace. This project represents the first private U.S. development in the West Bank. If we can change and enhance the lives of our people, it will make a difference, accomplish good and serve as a model to the world for how to make peace."

The Bethlehem facility, CURE's 13th worldwide, represents a dimension of the mission that Dr. Harrison did not anticipate when he founded the organization 10 years ago to help children in developing nations.

"Caring for disabled children in the way that we do is somewhat unique. We realize in the developing world, that about 40 percent of the children have disabilities that are curable," said Harrison. "In the United States, that number would be very much smaller because so many of our disabilities are associated with Cerebral Palsy, and we don't have treatment for that. But, in the Third World, there are nutritional causes or infectious causes, and a whole series of things, that with modern surgical technique we can make the children normal, or nearly normal," Harrison said.
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He said the organization started with the idea of going to areas where there would be a large number of children who are curable. What they have found is there are about 150 countries, which that would be true in. "Clearly our ability to be a Christian witness in those countries is an important part of what we felt all along that we do," Harrison said. "And, in past the three or four years, we have come to realize that we have a third opportunity, and that is what appears in the headlines of our newspapers daily, and that is the conflict between radical Islam and the Christian West is something that we are uniquely able to be a small part of brunting that problem."

That first became clear with the organization's work in Afghanistan. Cure built an infrastructure for their medical care, which was different from the work they have done in other places. It was focused on the entire population, because their medical needs where so great, the care was not restricted only to children.

"...The government really had a choice between giving it to an Islamic charity or to us, and because of what they saw us do, they gave us a 110-bed hospital. It's truly a unique situation, I think. As one of the few Western and Christian organizations in the country, it is very much a symbol of we in the West are compassionate; we are a group of people who are willing to care and help people in need. That is an important message to give in the countries, one that is very hard to do, but one that our ministry uniquely allows us to do," Harrison said.

Typically, hospitals of this size take about 18 months to build. "As of early March, it appears that we are about six to eight weeks out from beginning to dig the footers and move forward," said Harrison.

In moving into the West Bank, CURE leadership hopes to build bridges of understanding to the Muslim world -- a vision they have aggressively embraced after opening a successful hospital and clinic in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2005 and acquiring another hospital in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, last year.

CURE also operates hospitals in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia. In addition, the organization plans to build new hospitals in Egypt, Ethiopia and Niger over the next two years.

There are 350 million disabled children in the world. CURE International focuses on the 140 million who can be cured, providing care by training nationals to be experts in care provision.

CURE International is a Christian non-profit organization committed to the physical and spiritual healing of disabled children in developing countries. CURE International transforms the lives of children and their families, serving all by establishing specialty teaching hospitals, building partnerships and advocating for those who need healing. To date, CURE has performed 41,000 surgeries and treated more than 600,000 patients. For more information visit www.helpcurenow.com.