COVID & Clubfoot – Stories from the front lines
Clinics in Burkina Faso recently started getting their foot abduction braces from Niger, but then the pandemic hit. With travel restrictions in place over most international borders due to COVID-19, getting the needed braces to Burkina Faso has been a challenge. And now the clinics in the country were getting dangerously low on their brace inventory. But connections, resourceful thinking by the program managers in the two countries, and God?s perfect timing turned what seemed like an impossibility into a reality.?
Dr. Oubda, the program manager in Burkina Faso, knew of a truck driver making the trip from Niger to Burkina Faso. He had agreed to carry the braces over the border on one of his approved trips. Problem solved…maybe. Unfortunately, the truck driver was leaving at night to make the long journey, which meant that Moussa, the program manager in Niger, was not able to meet the truck driver because he was not allowed to leave his home under curfew. All seemed lost.
But with each new day, God provides new opportunities. The team learned of another truck driver leaving Niger for Burkina Faso that morning. Because the truck driver was nervous about being stopped by the police within the city limits, Moussa had to follow the truck outside of the city limits where he eventually was able to hand over the braces, and necessary approval letters, and away they went to Burkina Faso.?
The braces arrived safely in Burkina Faso a few days later. What would have been a standard delivery a few months ago turned into one of challenges and difficulties during the pandemic.
