Stanbic pays for 15 children with disabilities to undergo life changing surgery

Bulawayo (New Ziana)– Financial services provider Stanbic Bank Zimbabwe has availed a US$22 500 grant to a local health care facility to conduct life-changing surgery for 15 children living with correctible disabilities.

The grant was given to Cure Children’s Hospital of Zimbabwe (CCHOZ), which is the only healthcare organisation that offers free paediatric surgery for children under the age of 18 with treatable disabilities.

CURE Zimbabwe is a Christian non-profit making organisation that opened its doors in 2021 and, so far, has been a place of hope and healing for over 1 700 children living with treatable disabilities.

It operates a global network of children’s hospitals pairing world-class surgical and spiritual care to serve children with treatable disabilities and their families regardless of their economic status, ethnicity, religious background, or gender.

CURE Zimbabwe engages partners such as Stanbic Bank to fund surgical operations for treatable disabilities such as bowed legs, knock knees, clubfoot, brittle bones, windswept, neglected trauma, and burn contractures.

The 15 children who underwent the surgeries last week include boys and girls who had lost all hope of ever healing or recovering from their conditions. One of the children had been wheelchair-bound since birth and suffering from crouch gait – an abnormal walking condition characterised by the upward bending of the ankles (ankle dorsiflexion); bent knees (knee flexion), and bent hips (hip flexion) – is now on his way to full recovery and walking properly after Stanbic bank’s intervention.

Stanbic Bank chief executive officer Solomon Nyanhongo, speaking at the official signing ceremony, said the institution derived deep satisfaction from changing the fortunes of the 15 children whose lives would normally have been problematic due to the nurture of their disabilities.

Speaking shortly after visiting the 15 children who were recovering at CURE Zimbabwe Hospital wards, Nyanhongo said the surgical and spiritual care offered by CURE Zimbabwe resonated with Stanbic Bank’s quest to not only drive Africa and, in particular, Zimbabwe’s growth but make a difference within the communities in which it operates.

“Our tour of the wards has been an eye-opener for the Stanbic Bank staff. This life-changing and transformational work CURE Zimbabwe is doing is astonishing. To see someone come in literally unable to do anything and leave full of life and hope through the surgical operations gives us satisfaction that we are indeed contributing to the welfare of the members of the community in which we operate,” he said.

Nyanhongo said such transformation for the beneficiaries was a source of inspiration for the Standard Bank Group subsidiary, whose well-thought-out Corporate Social Investment (CSI) initiatives included propping up health care delivery, provision of education, water, sanitation, and looking after the environment.

“This is an unfamiliar field yet of paramount importance and as Stanbic Bank, we are prepared to partner with you in carrying out this phenomenal life-changing work and uplift the underprivileged going forward,” he said.

Since orthopaedic surgery is very expensive, many children born with correctible disabilities often go unoperated and bear the brunt of negative social stigma, with some of them often locked up far out of the public glare or even kept apart from their own family members by their parents.

CURE Zimbabwe executive director, Jonathan Simpson said the organisation engages donors, corporates, and individuals to finance the surgical operations for children in need of their service.

New Ziana