Clubfoot to Climate Change

This is the question Luke R., an engineering graduate from Messiah College, and CURE International, the organization he is volunteering with, are trying to answer.

Clubfoot is a fairly common birth defect in which the tissues connecting muscles to bone are shorter than usual, resulting in a downward and inward twisting foot. In some cases, the foot is twisted so severely that it looks as if it’s upside down. If left untreated, clubfoot impairs mobility.

In some communities in Kenya, babies with clubfoot are neglected because of the shame associated with deformity.

Many who do receive care struggle to comply with treatment length. Sometimes the foot appears corrected before the prescribed time, so patients remove the brace designed to correct the abnormality. The clubfoot then returns.

Alarmed by the shame associated with clubfoot and seeking to help improve treatment compliance, Luke invested the majority of his undergraduate career to studying new clubfoot brace technology that might increase correct usage and thus lead to better results.

In 2017, Luke spent three weeks in Kenya observing CURE International’s introduction of the new technology he’d been studying.

Now, he’s returning for six months to help CURE’s Clubfoot Program distribute this technology, train local staff, and follow-up with patients.

"The opportunity to work on clubfoot treatment alongside skilled Kenyan clinicians is very exciting to me!" Luke told us. "The CURE hospital staff members have transformed so many lives, and I'm excited to see how the clinical study of a new bracing option helps improve their quality of care."

This passion led her to volunteer as a medical interpreter for New York City immigrants, intern with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, and research sexual and reproductive needs of young men in the Dominican Republic.

Beatriz is returning to the Dominican Republic to volunteer with the Mariposa DR Foundation, which serves adolescent females in the marginalized community of Batey Libertad. She’ll spend 10 months teaching sexual, reproductive, and mental health.

"I’m super excited about this project with the Mariposa DR Foundation!" Beatriz said. "It’s something I’ve been wanting to do since I left the Dominican Republic last summer."

"Partners in Health has always inspired me and a lot of my motivation to study health came from books written by the organization’s founders," William said. "I like that they are in partnership with communities, as I think that’s the best way to help others."

Instead of starting medical school right after undergrad, William is volunteering with PIH, working to integrate a surgical and anesthesia program in the Chiapas region of Sierra Madre de Chiapas, where quality, affordable surgical care is out of reach for much of the community.

He’ll begin his dual program in medicine and global public health at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in 2019.

This is the question Helen G. grappled with as a grad student at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability.

After finishing her master’s degree, Helen wanted a real-world application of what she learned in the classroom.

She’ll spend six months interning with the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research Directorate (IAI) in Uruguay, assisting with capacity and partnership-building for this intergovernmental organization.

"I’m so excited to be working with the InterAmerican Institute for Global Change this year," Helen told us. "They do amazing work facilitating research and bringing people from all over Latin America on issues related to environmental change."