MiracleFeet

The MiracleFeet mission is to increase access to treatment of children born with clubfoot in developing countries using the Ponseti Method.

Over one million children in the world live with untreated clubfoot. Another affected child is born every three minutes. Clubfoot is a congenital birth defect that causes one or both feet to turn inward and downward. Without proper treatment, many of these children walk only with great difficulty, making clubfoot one of the leading causes of disability in the world. Unable to walk properly these children often cannot attend school, become marginalized and stigmatized in their families and communities, and often end up living on the streets or begging. Fortunately, it doesn't have to be this way. With treatment children born with clubfoot can live normal lives, running, playing and becoming productive members of their communities.

Historically, clubfoot was treated with very invasive and complicated surgery. In addition to being expensive and difficult on children, surgery has very poor results. However, broad acceptance of the Ponseti Method, a very effective, non surgical treatment now makes it possible to address the issue of clubfoot in an inexpensive manner on a global scale.

miraclefeet partners with Ponseti-trained doctors in local hospitals, and providing performance-based grants and support to increase the number of children being treated. By investing in local expertise and infrastructure, rather than flying US doctors into countries or building clinics from scratch, the miraclefeet approach is sustainable, scalable and low cost.