MiracleFeet Awarded $5.8 Million from GiveWell to Expand Clubfoot Treatment
MiracleFeet is thrilled to announce a $5.8M grant award by GiveWell, one of the most selective and impact-driven philanthropic donors in the sector, to deliver quality clubfoot care in three countries.
The grant allows us to expand our programs in the Philippines and launch two new programs in Chad and Côte d’Ivoire. It includes a target of enrolling at least 10,900 new children in high-quality clubfoot treatment and reaching 60% treatment coverage in each of the three countries. As part of the overall award, GiveWell approved a grant of $600,000 to fund monitoring and evaluation assessment to measure MiracleFeet’s impact on increasing access to clubfoot treatment over the grant period.
“GiveWell seeks out organizations that can deliver extraordinary impact per dollar invested. We are thrilled and honored to have met GiveWell’s rigorous selection criteria and very grateful for this pilot grant,” says MiracleFeet CEO, Daphne de Souza Lima Sorensen. “We are excited that GiveWell’s support will allow us to demonstrate that treating clubfoot deserves further investment and attention given the transformative and life-long impact it provides to children globally.”
The problem – and the solution
Clubfoot is one of the most common birth defects and a major cause of physical disability globally affecting an estimated 200,000 babies born every year (about 1 in 700). Clubfoot has been consistently overlooked and underfunded by global health agendas for decades meaning that more than 2 million children under the age of 15 are currently living with the pain and stigma of untreated clubfoot.
In advanced health systems, clubfoot is treated routinely and at birth; however, 80% of all children born with clubfoot live in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where there is little or no access to proper treatment. Children living with untreated clubfoot cannot walk properly and therefore face lifelong stigma and exclusion. They are less likely to go to school, unlikely to gain meaningful employment, and more likely to be malnourished, neglected, and even physically and sexually abused.
A problem we can solve
While we cannot eradicate the birth defect, we can prevent the extreme disability it causes and radically change the trajectory of millions of lives. The highly-effective and low-cost treatment, called the Ponseti Method, provides lifelong mobility, independence, and opportunity for children affected by this common condition. The method involves gently correcting the position of the feet with a series of casts, a simple outpatient procedure to release the Achilles tendon, and then a brace worn at night to prevent relapse.