Hope Walks Inc

Hope Walks builds clubfoot treatment programs by forming a network of partnerships to train and equip local healthcare providers to provide excellent care and through local church partners provide dedicated parent advisors to support families to ensure their children find freedom from clubfoot and experience the love of Christ. Our goal is to end disability from clubfoot for more than 70% of estimated children born each year in low- and middle-income countries so through our work families and communities experience and understand God's love for them.

Hope Walks combines the effectiveness of the Ponseti method and the importance of ongoing family support and education to provide hope and healing for children and their families from the physical, emotional and economic burden of clubfoot. Hope Walks has developed a high-impact, low-cost strategy that transforms the life of a child and their family and community by eliminating disability from clubfoot shortly after birth. This strategy includes:
1. Partnership: At local, national, and international levels strategic partnerships are essential for resource utilization and to create sustainable country-wide health programs.
2. Training: We recognize that formal training for our national medical providers, brace makers, program managers, and Parent Advisors is the first step in achieving a standard of excellence in care. As we build capacity locally, we have identified the need for ongoing follow-up, support, and mentoring in a manner that is appropriate to the needs of the staff and local context to ensure quality outcomes. We have developed the Africa Clubfoot Training (ACT) program in partnership with Oxford University and the Global Clubfoot Initiative which has been approved by the Royal College of Surgeons, London, and is our standard for clinical training and mentoring.
3. Awareness: Even though quality care may be available, many of our families are unaware of clubfoot or its treatment. Often because of a lack of resources, superstitions, or social stigmas, families are prevented from or do not seek treatment. We work to raise awareness among the general public and healthcare community about clubfoot and the importance of early treatment.
4. Access: Accessibility is a complex issue and dependent on the availability of treatment and supplies, the location of services, and an individual’s awareness and/or ability to reach the treatment center. Hope Walks works to establish a nationwide network of partner clubfoot clinics, within the national health system, to ensure awareness and availability at no cost to the child or their family.
5. Holistic Treatment Approach: Essential to any medical treatment is a standard, holistic, evidence-based approach. The Ponseti method is practiced and taught using the ACT materials for consistent, quality, standardized care by various types of healthcare professionals from mid-level practitioners to surgeons. Parent involvement is also essential for success. Our Parent Advisors educate, serve, and encourage our families to be involved and adhere to protocols while also building relationships to meet the many psychosocial needs often associated with having a child born with a disability.
6. Program Management and Quality Assurance: It is imperative that we closely monitor program operations and outcomes. Two pillars of our quality assurance strategy are a designated program management structure to provide supervision and mentoring and a standardized reporting system against defined KPIs.

Hope Walks has 15 years of experience training and supporting national healthcare providers in establishing and providing quality clubfoot care around the world. Each of our 16 programs has a national leadership team and structure. Each program is lead by a team of nationals who understand the culture and complexities of working in that country and with the various stakeholders. Our programs are supported by a VP of Programs and supported by a team of Regional Managers who provide leadership, support, monitoring and mentoring to achieve our goal of ending disability from clubfoot. Policies and procedures have been developed to guide our staff and defined KPIs are a part of our Data Management System to provide benchmarks toward achieving our goals.

Hope Walks has an active and engaged board providing fiduciary and operational oversight.

By choosing to work in low- and middle-income countries we face a host of challenges. Thankfully our vision and goals are clear and our team is committed to overcoming the various challenges we face in the 16 different countries where we serve.

To date, we have enrolled over 136,000 children in treatment. In 2017 we shifted to a new data collection system. Since 2017 we have enrolled 26,764 new children with clubfoot in treatment, had over 325,000 clinic visits, and have seen nearly 23,000 children walk free from the disability of clubfoot. Our staff have conducted over 4,500 home visits and made over 240,000 phone calls to encourage families and achieve our organization's goals.

Through the pandemic, our team saw a 15% increase in the number of new children enrolled. Since we are nationally run and have built a strong cadre of national healthcare providers well trained in the Ponseti method, care continued per the healthcare and social distancing regulations in each country. Today thousands of families are finding care for their children and their children are learning to take their first steps on straight feet and will never know a life disabled by clubfoot.