miraclefeet

Opening Possibilities by Correcting Clubfoot

Location: Botswana, Brazil, Ecuador, India, Liberia, Mexico, Namibia, Nicaragua, Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania

miraclefeet:  Grantee in 2014 and 2015

In impoverished areas of developing countries, miraclefeet provides proper, nonsurgical treatment for children born with clubfoot.  This disability is a stigmatizing birth defect that affects every 1 in 750 children.  But, it can be treated routinely and inexpensively.  Unfortunately, many in poor regions of the world lack access to this treatment and/or are not given support to use treatment devices properly.

The miraclefeet team worked with Stanford’s Design for Extreme Affordability to improve access to quality and affordable care.  Together, the team innovated and market tested a low-cost brace that is more affordable and more comfortable to use in the final phase of treatment.  They model their product on a brace-based process that is referred to as the Ponsetti Method.

Since starting with 50 patients in Brazil, miraclefeet has used this brace-based treatment in eleven countries to correct the clubfoot of several thousand children who otherwise would have gone untreated.  For these children, rather than be relegated to alive of ignominy and extreme poverty, they have a chance to live productive, active, and healthy lives.

The miraclefeet brace has received numerous awards, including the Katherine M. Swanson Young Innovator Award from the Museum of Innovation.

For more information, see: http://miraclefeet.org.

GRANT SUMMARY AND PURPOSE

2014:   $20,000 to treat about 79 children in Tanzania, a country where as many as 3,000 children are born with clubfoot every year. 

2015:  $25,000 to partially fund the cost of reaching an additional 600 children across Tanzania.

IMPACT

Enhance the chances for children afflicted with clubfoot to break out of the cycle of poverty and live more productive lives. Absent this corrective action, they would likely be stigmatized and unlikely to have education and job opportunities in mainstream society.