Carrboro's Miraclefeet Celebrates 10,000 Kids Helped Worldwide

A Carrboro-based non-profit group is celebrating a milestone this month, in its effort to fight a common birth defect around the world.

“Our partners have enrolled over 10,00 new children in treatment since we started operating,” said Chesca Colloredo-Mansfeld, “which means that the lives of 10,000 children around the world are going to be dramatically transformed, and have been dramatically transformed by the fact that they’re able to get treatment for clubfoot.”

Colloredo-Mansfeld is the director of miraclefeet, a non-profit organization dedicated to eradicating clubfoot in the developing world.

About five years ago, the organization began its first international partnership in São Paulo, Brazil. Today, miraclefeet helps families in 13 countries.

Clubfoot is a common defect that occurs in around one out of every 1,000 births, and affects twice as many males as females. Like cleft palate, its cause is unknown, although there is likely a genetic component.

“If you’re born with clubfoot, your feet point inwards and upwards,” said Colloredo-Mansfeld, “which means that, left untreated, you can’t walk properly. And in most places, if you can’t walk properly, you can’t get to school.”

In some cultures, where birth defects are superstitiously considered a curse the devastating effects for kids with clubfoot go way beyond physical disability and pain.

“They tend to be stigmatized,” said Colloredo-Mansfeld. “As a result, a lot of these kids get hidden away and pushed to the back of the hut. They don’t get fed properly because they don’t matter as much.”

Many kids with clubfoot around the world end up on the street, begging for food and money.

Miraclefeet seeks to prevent such tragedies. The treatment used by miraclefeet is known as the Ponseti method, named for its creator, Dr. Ignacio Ponseti.

“It’s a non –surgical treatment,” said Colloredo-Mansfeld. “The tendons and ligaments are gently manipulated by the doctor, and then the child is put into a Plaster-of-Paris cast. This cast stays on for one week, and usually the foot moves about 10-to-15 degrees in that one week.”

That process is repeated about three-to-five times until the condition is corrected. In most cases, there is one surgery involved. The Achilles tendon is lengthened in an outpatient procedure.

The children must also wear a foot brace at night while sleeping, until around age 5, to ensure their feet remain straight. In some cases, children have been treated up to the age of 12, and Colloredo-Mansfeld reports that even some adults with clubfoot have received help.

Colloredo-Mansfeld said the cost is about $250 to treat each child, and the funding comes from donations. If you’d like to help, you can donate on the organization’s website, miraclefeet.org.

Carrboro’s Miraclefeet Celebrates 10,000 Kids Helped Worldwide

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