COVID and Clubfoot – Stories from the front lines
During the pandemic, many villages are under quarantine in Burkina Faso. As a result, most families cannot get to the clubfoot clinics. For six-month-old Grace, this meant no new braces. But when her parents called the clinic to let them know Grace?s brace no longer fit, one persistent parent advisor went to extreme measures to see this child?s treatment continue.
Pastor Edmond serves as the parent advisor at the clubfoot clinic of CMC Morija in Kaya. Grace?s family lives in a village 59 miles away from the clinic. Pastor Edmond talked with the physiotherapist to see what they could do to make sure Grace?s progress didn?t backslide. They decided to approach the health authorities to obtain a special COVID-19 pass to allow Pastor Edmond to travel to Grace and personally deliver a brace.
Easier said than done. Pastor Edmond?s mode of transportation was a motorcycle over poor road conditions. He even had to stop to ask villagers along the way for shortcuts to avoid unpassable sections of the road.
More than two and a half hours later, he finally reached Grace?s home village with the new brace. Her parents were overjoyed to see him and amazed that he was able to make the journey.
?I reminded them that it was our duty, because of God’s love, to do everything we could to heal children born with clubfoot,? Pastor Edmond said. ?Jesus said in the Bible to love little children and let them come to him, so we come to them with a new brace for Grace. And if our donors sacrifice themselves to finance the activities of Hope Walks, we too have a duty to make sacrifices for the good of children in Burkina.?
Hope Walks Parent Advisor Pastor Edmond holds Grace after traveling 59 miles over rough roads to deliver her new brace. Grace’s grandfather and mom were grateful.