The Philippine NGO Council on Population, Health and Welfare (PNGOC) assured Negrenses that treatment for babies born with a “clubfoot” is free.
PNGOC Executive Director Chi Laigo Vallido, in a meeting with the press in Bacolod on Tuesday, June 12, said that based on their latest records, there are about 200 children in Negros who are availing the clubfoot free treatment, with 10 from Negros Oriental and the rest from Negros Occidental.
Clubfoot, a lower-limb deformity also called “kapingkawan sa paa”, is one of the most common congenital anomaly affecting millions of children around the world where every three minutes, one baby is born with a clubfoot.
In the Philippines five babies are born with a clubfoot every day. But more than 95 percent of clubfoot cases can be corrected if treated on time through a series of clinical processes, Vallido said.
PNGOC is an umbrella organization of NGOs located around the country that has been working on health and development issues since 1987.
Through the support of MiracleFeet, a foundation based in North Carolina, USA, our NGO is able to provide support to 36 partner clinics and hospitals all over the country in order to treat clubfoot patients for free, Vallido said.
In Negros Occidental the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital and Teoderico H. Pacaldo Orthopedic Clinic at the Riverside Medical Center are PNGOC partners who are catering to children born with a clubfoot, she added.*