By Ayomide Otitoju
A decade-long medical training partnership between Mercy Ships and Malagasy healthcare professionals is improving treatment for clubfoot patients in Madagascar, demonstrating the impact of surgical education and capacity-building.
Fanirisoa (5) and Vonjy (3), both born with clubfoot—a congenital condition that causes the feet to turn inward and downward—received corrective treatment at Hospital Analakininina in Toamasina. Untreated, the condition can result in permanent disability.
The children benefited from the Ponseti method, a globally recognized standard for clubfoot correction that combines serial casting, minor surgery, and bracing. Research shows the method achieves correction in approximately 90% of cases, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
Mercy Ships first helped establish a Ponseti-based clinic at the hospital in 2015, training local clinicians to deliver care independently. Vonjy was treated entirely by Malagasy clinicians trained through the original program, while Fanirisoa received care as part of a current mentoring initiative aimed at managing older children and more complex cases.
Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Rachel Buckingham from the United Kingdom, a volunteer with Mercy Ships, emphasized the importance of local capacity-building. “The goal is to strengthen local teaching and training so that, one day, Mercy Ships is no longer needed,” she said.
For their father, Edmine, seeing the boys stand and walk without pain was life-changing. “If they had not received treatment, it would have been a heavy burden for us as parents. Their feet are just like everyone else’s. They can do everything the others can do,” he said.
Fanirisoa and Vonjy symbolize the milestones of Madagascar’s medical development: one marking the success of training initiated ten years ago, and the other helping to build the next generation of African surgeons for the future.
