Keylla in Zambia
When Hellen gave birth to her daughter, Keylla, she was met with a diagnosis she had never seen before. No one in her family had ever had clubfoot, and there was no one she could ask for guidance. “I could not believe my eyes because there is no one in my family that is disabled and I have never seen such a condition before,” she said. “This left me restless, confused and gripped in fear.”
Help arrived within days. A Parent Advisor happened to be in the maternity ward that day, asking nurses whether any newborns had been born with clubfoot. Hellen approached him and told him about her daughter. He gave her his number and told her to come to the clinic without hesitation. Within a week, Keylla was enrolled and her treatment had begun.
Hellen lives with her grandmother, and Keylla’s father, Kondwani, lives with his parents in a different province. The two are not married, and neither currently has steady work, so their extended families help carry the household. Hellen was in grade 9, pregnant, when she dropped out of school. Her Parent Advisor encouraged her to go back. She listened, and despite the demands of a newborn, clinic visits and limited money for transportation, she completed her secondary education, something everyone around her admired.
She had expected judgment from her community when Keylla was born with clubfoot. Instead, she found the opposite. “The people were very kind, sympathetic and supportive,” she said. “I thought they were going to mock and judge me but on the contrary they encouraged me and advised that I keep taking the child to the hospital for treatment.”
The hardest part of treatment was the bracing stage, watching Keylla want to play freely while the braces held her still. The turning point came about three weeks later, after a tenotomy procedure, when the cast came off and Hellen saw her daughter’s feet in a normal position for the first time. “I was very excited,” she said. “I am grateful to God and Hope Walks for the treatment of my child.”
Her Parent Advisor stayed with her through every stage, answering questions and easing her fears. “They are a source of strength, comfort and encouragement,” she said. Through the clinic’s counseling and prayer, she says she moved from feeling hopeless to trusting God with her daughter’s future. “Finding help for my child is like receiving a gift from God,” she said. “I never thought that my child would be healed in this fashion of treatment. I really thank God and Hope Walks for all they do.”
(left) A close up of Keylla’s feet before treatment began. (right) Keylla in her first brace after completing the casting process.