AMECA is delighted to report that since opening in May 2011, The AMECA Wing built at The BEIT CURE International Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi has generated approximately £34,700 in gross income up to mid September 2012. The net income is used for paediatric orthopaedic care and club-foot revision at the hospital, providing valuable free treatment to children whose often cureable conditions would have otherwise caused them to be a burden on their community.
1,242 children were treated nationally in Malawi in 2011 as a result of the National Club Foot Programme. The cost of completing curing club-foot in children under two years old is only £40. Orthopaedic surgery and procedures required for older children cost around $1,000, (£630).
Meet one of the children that the wing has helped…
Joyce George
Condition: Bowed Leg
Every time visitors walked into the children’s ward, Joyce would hide her face in her pillow. But not before she displayed a huge smile.
Around the time Joyce began to walk, her mother began to notice a leg deformity, which is properly referred to as Blount’s Disease. The condition is not hereditary and Joyce is able to still walk, although she feels great pain after standing for periods of time.
Joyce is now in the 3rd grade at school and works hard, despite the fact that her long walk there is slow and painful and she is often teased by fellow classmates. She would like to study to be a nurse and care for other children that have deformities and disabilities.
Joyce and her mother Edna have waited a long time for the life-changing surgery that will free her from the debilitating disease. Thanks to funds raised through the AMECA Wing, Joyce’s surgery was paid for and she is now looking forward to a much brighter future.
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