A charity set up by a British doctor is transforming the lives of disabled children in Zanzibar.
Dr Charlotte Hawkins set up a clinic to help combat the increasing problem of club foot on the African island.
The Infant Club Foot Appeal (ICA) charity set up the island’s first club foot clinic at Mnazi Mmoja Hospital in Stone Town with the aim of training clinic staff in the effective use of the Ponseti Method using orthotics and prosthetics materials supplied by Algeos.
A shipment of modern O&P equipment and materials left Liverpool in August last year on a journey of just under 5,000 miles.
Now, just eight months later, the clinic is celebrating the first beneficiaries of the prosthetic fittings, marking a dramatic change in the lives of disabled adults and children on the island.
A number of Algeos partners worked together to source the products and equipment for the clinic including Ortho Europe, Blatchfords, Ken Hall Footwear, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Renace Orthotics, Royal Berkshire Hospital, Salts Techstep, King’s Mill Hospital and Langer Orthotics.
Club foot is a foot deformity affecting one or both feet. In Zanzibar, as many as 50 babies a month are born with their feet turned inwards and upwards. Without treatment these children will only be able to crawl for the rest of their lives.
The Ponseti Method uses a gentle, manual manipulation of the foot, followed by the application of toe-to-groin plaster casts.
Dr Hawkins is a specialist in lower limb paediatrics in Harley Street, London, who was moved to set up the ICA charity after witnessing the scale of the problem in Zanzibar.
Dr Hawkins said: “With this particular treatment you can leave them to do it themselves.
“They want to fix their population and this is really empowering them to get rid of a disability that is rife in their community.”