International (MNN) — CURE International is inviting you to help a child walk by
simply signing a cast. For every
signature completed online, an anonymous donor has agreed to provide a $5 cast
for a child recovering from clubfoot surgery.
More than 200,000 children born in developing countries this
year will have clubfoot. If they do not
receive treatment for the condition, they will miss occupational, educational,
and social opportunities.
For a child suffering from clubfoot, walking on the
misshapen feet is painful, difficult, and sometimes impossible. The condition can be corrected without
surgery before the age of two, but few children in developing countries are
treated for clubfoot. In the developed
world, by contrast, clubfoot has been eradicated as a lasting disability.
CURE Clubfoot Worldwide is an initiative to eradicate
clubfoot globally. In the next ten
years, it plans to eradicate clubfoot through 100 countrywide programs. It already operates teaching hospitals in 11
developing-world countries, which mainly focus on helping children with
congenital disorders and disabilities. It plans to open four more hospitals by the end of 2009, including a
hospital in Ethiopia
that is opening this year.
To achieve its goal, CURE plans to use the Ponseti Method, which
is the recognized standard for treating clubfoot without surgery. Over a period of two months, children under two years old with clubfoot can be corrected by means of manipulation and the
application of plaster casts. CURE has
established a partnership with the International Ponseti Association to
standardize its use of this method.
Since its founding in 1996, CURE has performed 46,000
operations and seen nearly as many people come to Christ. It endeavors to transform health care in
Third-World countries, bringing it up to First-World standards. Click here if you would like to sign a cast
and help a child walk.
