Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Government today renewed its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Cure International India Trust (CURE India) for the Odisha Clubfoot Programme.
This MoU, is a commitment for joint collaboration of three departments of the State Government Health & Family Welfare (H&FW) Department, Women & Child Development (W&CD) Department and Social Security & Empowerment of Persons with Disability (SS&EPD) Department with CURE India, towards achieving the objective of the programme.
Owing to successful running of the programme the State government renewed the MoU for a further period of two years in the presence of H&FW Minister, Commissioner-cum-Secretary H&FW Department and officers representing W&CD Department as well as SS&EPD Department and Director, Cure International India Trust (Cure India).
Clubfoot is one of the world’s most common physical disabilities in newborn infants, as a result of which the feet gets twisted inward and around.
In Odisha, with a population of over 4 crore, it is estimated that around 2000 children are born with clubfoot every year.
Many of these children grow up with clubfoot and they live physically challenged all their life, and most of them never get an opportunity for education.
The objective of the Odisha Clubfoot programme is to eradicate disability in children caused by clubfoot through the Ponseti method of treatment.
The programme was initiated in December 2012, through an MoU signed by the Odisha Government with Cure International India Trust (CURE India), a national healthcare organization working in the country. The MoU is periodically renewed.
Till date more than 5000 children from the State have benefitted from the programme, around 110 doctors of Odisha have been trained in Ponseti Technique, apart from various other activities being undertaken under the programme.
Under this partnership, the following activities are undertaken:
- Counselling parents on treatment of clubfoot.
- Follow-up of each child through telephonic calls and house visits.
- Community sensitization on prevalence of clubfoot and its available treatment.
- Training of Orthopedic Doctors on the Ponseti Method for treating clubfoot
- Training of Community link health workers and collaboration with RBSK for identification.
- Referral of clubfoot cases to designated clubfoot clinics.
- Distribute foot Abduction Braces free of cost to every child suffering from Clubfoot.
- Maintain 24×7 clubfoot helpline (# 88 000 20527) for any issue relating to clubfoot.
