Hope Walks Inc.

Children born with clubfoot are often rejected, neglected, and overlooked. Being born with a disability brings shame to the mother, the family, and the child. Without treatment, a child with clubfoot is left to grow up excluded, dependent on others, and unable to achieve their God-given abilities.   

All children deserve access to the highest level of quality compassionate healthcare. Funding and support through the Elevate Prize will increase our ability to train, mentor, and empower leaders in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to ensure care and to advocate for children with clubfoot. Funding will provide training for healthcare providers and educate government leaders, midwives, and community health workers to identify these children early and make certain they get the care they need. Support will elevate our platform to see an end of disability from clubfoot. It will facilitate our access and help communicate the powerful story of these families and children who have overcome clubfoot to run free towards a future unencumbered by disability. Through this prize, thousands of children will run free and experience life to its fullest, and we can take a step forward towards ending disability from clubfoot by 2030.   

My vision and purpose is to serve and inspire others, particularly future generations, while always learning and seeking wisdom to lead with humility, integrity and excellence.  Children are our future and life brings challenges. By helping children overcome barriers, their future is filled with endless possibilities. This is why I went into pediatric ICU nursing.  International healthcare soon captured my passion as I saw the immense gap in healthcare worldwide, particularly for children and especially for those with disabilities.  

Disability from clubfoot has been eliminated in the West yet tens of thousands of children around the world are left disabled every year because they don’t have access to its simple treatment. Through a series of weekly plaster casts, feet are correctly aligned. Alignment is then maintained by braces worn when the child sleeps. With this intervention shortly after birth, we can set these kids up to take their first steps on straight feet and never know a life of disability. However, few know about it and there are fewer fighting to do anything about it. Imagine, one day these kids becoming doctors, lawyers, businessmen and women, and leaders because we cared enough to care for them.

Clubfoot is a deformity present at birth that twists the foot downward and inward, making walking difficult or impossible. Clubfoot affects one in 806 births and is one of the most common congenital physical disabilities worldwide. While it cannot be prevented, it can be corrected using a relatively inexpensive treatment process called the Ponseti method. Ninety percent of children born with clubfoot are born in LMICs, where proper treatment is often either antiquated, unavailable, or unattainable because of a lack of resources or other cultural barriers. 

Hope Walks frees children, families, and communities from the burden of clubfoot. We operate in 16 LMICs across Africa and Latin America. Hope Walks establishes and supports clubfoot treatment programs within government and faith-based health and rehabilitation centers, so all children born with clubfoot have access to care. We help national healthcare staff provide complete quality early treatment for infants and children born with clubfoot. Hope Walks also trains and supports a parent advisor for each partner clubfoot clinic. Parent advisors develop relationships with the families providing education for parents on clubfoot and its treatment and supporting the physical, emotional, and psychosocial needs of the families.

Many disabilities can be accommodated, but for neglected surgical diseases like clubfoot, by providing early intervention, the “disability” is eliminated. Early treatment eliminates the stigma and shame and enables the child and family to experience true freedom and inclusion in all aspects of society. The outcome is hope and healing, completely changing the future for the child, their family, and community and yielding an incredible return on investment that will pay dividends for years to come.

Hope Walks has been a leader in working to improve the care for children with clubfoot and their families. Our leadership along with our partner clubfoot clinics have been active participants in developing the Africa Clubfoot Training curriculum, Early Detection and Referral curriculum, and Parent Advisor Training curriculum. Working closely with the Global Clubfoot Initiative (GCI), these courses and resources are made available to other clubfoot organizations as best practices in clubfoot care and treatment.

As we work within the partner clubfoot clinics, our staff fosters relationships with the local church and seeks out opportunities to raise awareness, break down cultural and religious misconceptions of disability and impart the true nature of God’s love and care for these children and families impacted by clubfoot.

Through a systematic program model of partnerships with various stakeholders, we have created a sustainable model that changes feet, the fabric of society, and the way they view children born with disabilities. 

With activities to establish and create partnerships, educate and support parents, promote early referral, and train and mentor local staff to establish clinic networks, we expect supplies will be available, children will be treated, support will be provided and a national program will develop. This plan combines early effective treatment by competent clinicians to ensure freedom from clubfoot. The elimination of disability and strengthened national health system ultimately results in a world free from the disability of clubfoot 

Awareness and support from within the local community and engagement within the national health structure are essential for long-term success. By empowering those who live and work in the community and those who are personally impacted we will break down barriers and eliminate disability.