Sierra Leone

Prosthetic Care:

In 2005, Prosthetics Outreach Foundation launched an exciting new program in the West African nation of Sierra Leone. This rehabilitation initiative is bringing modern prosthetic care and rehabilitation services to children and adults throughout Sierra Leone’s Northern Province, a region hit particularly hard by the recent civil war. As the only local or international group providing similar services in northern Sierra Leone, POF is filling a critical need and contributing to the rebuilding of this war-torn area.

Clubfoot Care:

Worldwide, of a thousand babies born, one to three will be born with clubfoot.  The condition gradually robs children of their ability to walk normally as one or both feet turn inward and in severe cases even backward.  If left untreated, clubfoot is a highly visible disability that severely limits the child’s mobility and often leads to a lifetime of suffering, discrimination and poverty.  Using the Ponseti method, the preferred treatment method in developed countries, the disability can be corrected permanently through a series of castings and subsequent bracing without using highly invasive, painful and expensive surgery.

In 2010, POF held a Ponseti training seminar in Makeni that brought together medical teams from throughout the country.  As a result of this training, three regional Ponseti treatment centers have been established in addition to the one in Makeni.