Crowdfunding campaign launched to help African children

Oxford surgeons have launched a £100,000 crowdfunding campaign to transform the lives of African children with clubfoot.

The funding will support training of clinicians on the continent by Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre (NOC) medics.

More than 30,000 children in Africa are born with clubfoot each year. Many thousands of these children will not receive treatment, as it is not available where they live.

Without treatment, the condition becomes 'neglected clubfoot', a painful and severely disabling deformity. However, in up to 95 percent of cases, clubfoot can be treated successfully using the Ponseti method, especially if this is initiated early. 

The Ponseti method involves gentle manipulations of the foot and serial plaster casting over a period of about six weeks, then a very small outpatient procedure to divide a tight tendon. The child then needs to wear a brace for a short time to prevent recurrence.

Researchers, surgeons, and physiotherapists from the University of Oxford and the NOC have developed two courses for healthcare professionals, one to train providers to delivering treatment to children with clubfoot, and one to train new instructors.

Working with partners CURE Clubfoot and Global Clubfoot Initiative , the group devised a two-day Basic Clubfoot Treatment Provider
training course based on the Ponseti technique, and designed especially for under-resourced situations.

In many African countries there are shortages of healthcare providers, and the course focuses on key essentials. The course has shown that healthcare providers who have no specialised physiotherapy or orthopaedic training can effectively deliver treatment for clubfoot.

The clubfoot 'Train The Trainer' course addresses the shortage of healthcare providers further.

It trains new instructors in the knowledge and skills necessary to teach the basic course. The group aims to give every child with clubfoot the opportunity to have treatment, as it rolls out two courses across Africa, a Basic Clubfoot Treatment Provider training course and a Clubfoot 'Train The Trainer' course.

The University's Professor Chris Lavy has worked with children with clubfoot for the last 20 years, both in the UK and Africa.

He currently leads the Africa Clubfoot Training Project, a project that is strengthening training and delivery capacity for clubfoot treatment in 18 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, helping more children have access to much needed clubfoot treatment.

He said: "We are very excited by the opportunity to completely change the lives of children and families, by training many more healthcare providers to treat more children with clubfoot."

Last month, Chris Lavy and Tim Theologis, Consultant Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, delivered the clubfoot training materials in French in Rwanda, at the first pilot of the course since it was translated.

Tim Theologis said: "Clubfoot treatment with the Ponseti technique is the biggest achievement in children's orthopaedics in the last 50 years.

"It makes a real difference in people's lives through minimal intervention. Untreated children become disabled adults; treated children can function without restrictions.

"To achieve that in Africa we need to train as many local clinicians as possible to reach children born with clubfeet in the most remote areas, away from major medical centres."

The four-week campaign runs from Monday 7 November to Sunday 4 December 2016 at https://oxreach.hubbub.net/p/clubfoot