Before the surgeons scrub in, before the anesthetist checks the machines, before a single child is wheeled into theatre, Kairu Hannington has already been at work. The floor is clean. The room is set. Nothing is out of place. It is work most people never think to notice, and it is exactly where Kairu wants to be.
“I may not always be the person performing surgery,” he says, “but I play a role in creating a safe, clean, and prepared environment for children to receive life-changing treatment.”
Kairu joined CURE Children’s Hospital Uganda on 1st September 2020 as a general service assistant in the housekeeping department. For nearly six years, he kept the hospital’s spaces clean and prepared, the kind of work that rarely draws attention but that every surgery depends on. Then, on 4th May 2026, he moved into the nursing department as a theatre aide, working directly in the operating room.
It was, in his words, a rewarding transition, and he resumed work immediately. The role changed. The purpose behind it did not.
“By maintaining a clean, safe, and well-prepared environment, I help protect patients from infection and support the medical team in providing quality care,” he says.
What Excellence Looks Like in Theatre
In an operating room, commitment to excellence rarely announces itself. It shows up in the details: a surface wiped down properly, an instrument tray set exactly in place, equipment checked and ready before anyone asks for it. It is preparation that lets a surgical team walk into the room and focus entirely on the child in front of them, not on what might be missing.
That is the standard Kairu holds himself to on every shift.
“By helping keep the theatre safe, clean and prepared, I contribute to successful operations and better patient outcomes,” he says. “Every child deserves safe, high-quality care and the opportunity for a healthier future.”
Today, almost six years into his time at CURE, he counts the time exactly, because it matters to him. Kairu approaches each day in theatre the same way he approached his very first day in housekeeping: as work that directly shapes whether a child’s surgery goes well.
For families whose children come to CURE for neurosurgical care, and for the donors who make that care possible, that connection is worth understanding. A successful operation depends on far more than a surgeon’s skill alone. It depends on a theatre prepared to the same exacting standard every single time, and on someone who treats that preparation not as routine, but as responsibility.
Kairu holds a diploma in hotel management from Crested Crane Hotel and Tourism Training Institute in Jinja, completed in 2005, along with his UACE from Jinja Secondary School and UCE from St. Peter’s High School, Jinja. It is a background built around service and hospitality, and one that has found its fullest expression inside a children’s hospital theatre.
He describes his Christian faith as the foundation for how he works: with compassion, integrity, and dignity toward every patient and every colleague. For him, CURE is not simply an employer.
“It is a privilege to be part of an organization where caring for the physical and spiritual well-being of patients goes hand in hand,” he says. “Every task I do is a service to God and to the children and families we serve.”
What Kairu describes has a name at CURE Uganda. Joy in Service is one of CURE’s core values. We love serving children and helping them live life to its fullest. This value shows up in nearly six years of cleaning spaces, with no visitor notices and no report mentions, and then carries the same approach into a theatre where the stakes are higher but the work is still largely unseen. Kairu does not treat that as a lesser contribution to a child’s healing. He treats it as his.
Outside the hospital, that same instinct to serve shows up in how he spends his free time. Kairu holds an L1 rugby coaching certification and gives his time to growing women’s rugby and youth sports in Uganda, investing in young people the same way he invests in the children who pass through CURE’s theatre doors.
Seeing the Impact
What keeps Kairu at CURE, after nearly six years of service, is simple. He sees the outcome of his work in every child who recovers.
“Seeing patients recover, supporting colleagues, and making a positive difference in people’s lives motivates me every day,” he says.
It is a reminder that healing at CURE begins long before a scalpel is ever picked up, in the quiet, careful work of someone making sure the room is ready to receive a child in need.
Click here to learn how CURE Uganda brings healing to children with treatable disabilities.
About the CURE Children’s Hospital of Uganda
CURE Children’s Hospital of Uganda has been a place of hope since opening its doors in 2001. It is one of Africa’s leading pediatric hospitals for brain surgery and the treatment of neurological conditions. Our teaching hospital has an 18-bed Intensive Care Unit and 59 ward beds, three operating rooms, and an outpatient clinic. In addition to world-class medical care, our team ministers to the emotional and spiritual needs of our patients and their communities.
