Ainhara was born into a small family in Honduras. She received her first clubfoot casts at two days old in a private clinic not associated with Hope Walks. After two months of casting, the doctor moved Ainhara to leather shoes and said she would be fine, but something didn’t seem right to her parents.
Pedro and Lesby brought Ainhara back to the hospital because they doubted her healing. At the hospital, medical professionals told them about Hope Walks and the Ponseti method to straighten feet twisted by clubfoot.
But the Hope Walks clinic was far away, requiring Pedro and Lesby to travel seven hours to the clinic. Lesby was struggling during this time. She saw other children Ainhara’s age progressing much faster than she was.
When Ainhara wore casts, her parents felt like other parents were criticizing them. They saw the casts and assumed Ainhara had fallen and broken her legs because her parents were careless. Lesby attempted to hide her daughter’s casts with long, pink socks. The negative comments simply made Pedro and Lesby’s resolve greater to see their daughter through the treatment process.
Marcia, their parent advisor, was a warm presence in the sea of doubt and confusion. Her explanations about clubfoot were comforting. Her words about God’s healing reassured Pedro and Lesby they were doing the right thing.
Time passed, and Ainhara and her family found healing through Hope Walks. Ainhara can now walk, run, and jump with children her age who used to be developmentally faster than she was.
“May God bless all the people who donate. We are grateful. There are no words to measure the degree of gratitude,” Pedro said.
Clubfoot is a deformity present at birth that twists the foot downward and inward, making walking difficult or impossible. While it cannot be prevented, it can be corrected using a relatively inexpensive treatment process called the Ponseti method. 
The initial process involves weekly casting for four to six to eight weeks and, in most cases, a minimally-invasive outpatient procedure to lengthen the Achilles tendon.
After this, in the maintenance phase, children wear a foot abduction brace for 23 hours a day for three months, and then at night and nap time until the age of five. Children born with clubfoot can take their first steps on completely straight feet thanks to early intervention and to this relatively simple, cost-effective treatment method.
We don’t know exactly what causes clubfoot, but we do know it’s not because of something the parents did. Unfortunately, in many of the places where we work, mothers are usually the first to be blamed for the condition. Family and neighbors often incorrectly say the deformity results from unconfessed sin, a curse, a character flaw, doing too much hard labor, or a variety of other local beliefs and traditions. Some of our most important work is spreading the word that clubfoot can’t be prevented, but it CAN be treated at one of our local partner clubfoot clinics at no cost to the family.
Established in 2018 to glorify God and free children and their families from clubfoot’s physical, social and economic burdens, Hope Walks’ vision is to see all children access quality clubfoot care and experience the love of Christ. From our beginnings as a program of a larger organization to today, our team has impacted the lives of more than nearly 160,000 children born with clubfoot worldwide.
Established in 2018 to glorify God and free children and their families from clubfoot’s physical, social and economic burdens, Hope Walks’ vision is to see all children access quality clubfoot care and experience the love of Christ. From our beginnings as a program of a larger organization to today, our team has impacted the lives of more than nearly 160,000 children born with clubfoot worldwide.
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