Humanitarian Projects-Club Foot Clinic

We have decided that we need more activities and a little recreation, so last week we went with our Humanitarian missionaries, the wonderful Binghams, to visit a club foot clinic. It's really a maternity clinic in a very highly populated, poor area of the city where 40 babies a day are born at a cost of $15 a birth.

At this clinic they give prenatal tests and counseling, but most of the women don't have enough money to buy the vitamins and good food that are recommended. Poor nutrition and lack of prenatal care cause many problems and a high death rate for infants in the Congo.

This hospital is located down a muddy, narrow, street that was almost too small for us to navigate. But this clinic is a simple, clean and safe place for treatment.

The Neighborhood

The Clinic

This club foot treatment is life changing since without it children would have no more future than to be beggars. These adorable little guys (most with club feet are males) are treated for just a few weeks with casts and then shoes with rods between them and then followed up with treatment.

The process is done by casting the child's legs for a week. Then the mom brings the child to the clinic where they soak the casts in a bucket until it can be cut off. This process is repeated for about 7-8 weeks. They were removing the casts with steak knives until our couple showed them how to do it with a Leatherman tool. It made it so much easier. The Binghams wrote to the Leatherman company and told them about their experience and the company sent 50 tools for them to share with this and other places that have this kind of need. The church also provides the shoes and other supplies used in this practice, which is also a training facility for technicians who are learning this treatment.

These moms were happy to have their pictures taken. None of them spoke French, which means that none of them had attended school. But they were doing the best they can for their children and after is treatment their kids will have a chance for a future. It's a wonderful service.

The most impressive thing of all is that the doctor who runs this clinic is himself disabled. What a great example he is of what can be accomplished. At the end of our visit they gave us drinks to thank us for the visit and help. It was a great outing and a touching experience.

Binghams, Head of the Hospital, Country Social service employee and us