A huge thank you to MiracleFeet, in so many ways
Make It Stand Out.
MiracleFeet, one of our first grantees, has been instrumental in getting this website up and running. They provided photos and video footage for us to use. Their contributions helped to bring life to TawingoFund.org.
More importantly, thank you to MiracleFeet for your extraordinary work and vision to help children with clubfoot. I originally stumbled upon MiracleFeet when I was 17 years old and trying to decide where to donate Hannukah money designated for a charity by my parents. I was struck by how much $400 could do to change a life. I knew very little about clubfoot or the world, for that matter, but this simple proposition stuck with me.
Clubfoot is the leading cause of physical disability in the world. It is a condition that babies are born with where one or both feet turn inward. We don’t think about it in the US because it is identified at birth and almost immediately corrected, so it doesn’t pose any significant challenge for children. That is not the case in areas around the world, where children with clubfoot live with the pain and stigma of untreated clubfoot. Many can’t walk, and those that can are often excluded and isolated, not attending school or leaving their homes for fear of being tormented. Yet thanks to MiracleFeet, for a little under $500 (the cost has gone up a little with inflation 😊) it can be permanently corrected, transforming a child’s life.
When we started the Tawingo Fund, I reached out to MiracleFeet to learn more about their work in the hopes of making a much larger grant than my annual Hannukah gift. What I discovered was an incredible organization that I feel so fortunate to be able to support. Miracle Feet corrects clubfoot with the Ponseti method, a non surgical approach that involves casts and a brace. The method makes treatment accessible to more people by not requiring surgery, which would be very challenging for people to access both financially and physically who live in rural areas in developing countries.
What makes them unique and such a strong fit for Tawingo Fund is that Miraclefeet provides a lasting, scalable solution that changes lives and has the ability to eliminate untreated clubfoot in our lifetime. They work with existing public health centers to train doctors in the ponseti method. This means that once enough doctors around the world are trained, they can identify and treat children born with clubfoot, essentially eliminating the need for organizations like MiracleFeet. MiracleFeet has an impressive data tracking system which enables them to ensure that children are getting the best treatment possible and that they know where to focus additional training.
To this day, I still consider every $400 I spend, keenly aware that no object could be worth more than changing a child’s life. And I am moved to tears as a parent myself, every time I watch these videos: https://www.miraclefeet.org/stories/this-dad-pedaled-1200-miles-to-ensure-his-sons-mobility and https://www.miraclefeet.org/stories/matinde-tanzania
Thank you Miracle Feet. I am forever in awe of your work.
