PLAN Health Advocacy and Development Foundation (PLAN foundation) with funding from MiracleFeet, an international non-profit organisation, is to provide free clubfoot treatment for 60 children below 5 years.
Executive Director of Plan Foundation, Mr Obatunde Oladapo, disclosed this at the opening of a 3-day advocacy and resource mobilisation development workshop for the Eliminating Multiple Barriers to Sexual and Reproductive Health Services among Young Girls and Women with Disabilities (Embassy Project).
The workshop was to strengthen the knowledge and skills of participants in advocacy and resource mobilisation for changing policies or cultural norms that may constitute barriers to improving access to sexual and reproductive services for women and girls with disabilities.
Mr Oladapo said the free clubfoot non-surgical treatment is to take place in 2 hospitals, Ring Road State Hospital and Bowen University Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso, and will span over 5 years.
He added, “The beauty of our project is that everything is monitored online. When you bring the child, they do the basic ascertaining of the child. They take the picture of the leg, and it is scored. The lowest score is when the child’s leg is now straight and normal, like every other child’s leg.
“The child is managed carefully and closely throughout the period. It takes about up to five years, depending on the severity and how early the treatment commences for the leg to be straightened.
“Each child has up to three contacts that through which he or she can be followed up and reminded of appointment dates. Even if there is a change in location of a parent, they refer them to another clinic that provides similar services, even if it’s outside the state.
“The end goal is that the child’s leg becomes normal and the repair is better done before the children start getting more conscious of their environment and the deformity.
“MiracleFeet has programmes in more than 20 countries across the world where they provide similar services. We look forward to an exciting time helping children and mothers who feel that they are hopeless and don’t have a solution to the problem of clubfoot in their children.”
On the embassy project funded by Amplify Change, Mr Oladapo said areas in which women with disabilities are marginalised had been identified in Oyo State and steps taken to bridge the gaps in the provision of services for women and girls with disabilities.
Part of the steps to ensure sustainability of the response to sexual and reproductive health services, he said, included training of health workers on sign language and the development of a curriculum for healthcare workers on the provision of sexual and reproductive health services for women with disabilities.
“We are also disseminating information about those 15 facilities across the six health zones of the state, where they can access disability-friendly sexual and reproductive health services within their cluster groups and through the Oyo State Agency for Persons with Disability.”
and then