ZANE ( Zimbabwe a national emergency works with clinics to help babies with clubfoot
What is Clubfoot?
There are 14,000 untreated cases of Clubfoot in Zimbabwe and an estimated 500 babies born every year with the condition. Clubfoot is an inward pronation of the feet. It is painful for the newborn, but even more so as the child grows and attempts to walk which is mostly impossible. Neglected, Clubfoot leaves children stigmatised and unable to attend school, exposing them to a lifetime of loneliness and poverty.
Clubfoot treatment
Dr Ignacio Ponseti developed a method for treating Clubfoot nearly 60 years ago, which is now the international standard of best practice and endorsed by all major paediatric orthopaedic associations worldwide.
The treatment consists of a using a series of casts, gentle manipulation and a special brace. In infants the method takes about 4-6 weeks.
Small Act
What creative solutions could you, your community, colleagues and children come up with to support one child with Clubfoot.
You will literally change a life from babyhood onward. What a wonderful incentive.
The cost
The cost of one of these treatments is US$350.
About Zane and their Ponsetti Method program
ZANE along with their partners helps to fund the Club Foot correction program, and consequently 2,110 children are currently in the Clubfoot program and 149 medical staff have been trained with eleven centres of remedial treatment established in Zimbabwe.
What we know in talking to Nikki Passaportis who works for ZANE Australia, herself a Zimbabwean and immigrant to Australia, is that money raised for these projects delivers exactly what was intended by the donation—helping a baby walk.
We believe this is a wonderful project to be involved in. There are 14,000 children who need help currently, and another 500 yet to be born every year alone. That’s a lot of children who will walk with our help.
