Through the 18th Man program run through One4another International, three of our Hawks teams have sponsored a child from Uganda that has a surgical condition that they cannot afford. In most cases, these are children that were born with a club foot or feet that have never been treated.
The Minor Bantam AAA team and coach Ken Jesyman decided to sponsor Ashiraf, a 12 year old boy born with a right club foot that had never been treated. The team raised more than the required amount of $70 each and chose to buy Ashiraf and his family supplies to sustain them for 3-5 months.
The Minor Bantam MD team and coach Phil Povey sponsored a young man named Mathias. Mathias is 7 years old and suffered from a "frozen foot" caused by a poorly administered malaria shot when he was an infant.
The Major Peewee MD team and coach John Fullerton raised money to support an operation for Jimmy, an 8 year old Ugandan boy that was born with double clubfoot.
The Major Bantam MD team also participated in the 18th player project for the second season now. We are sponsoring Cyrus. Please see below about his condition:
At 8 years old he had an injection for malaria in the hip. Shortly afterward they began to notice that he was losing sensation and function in his lower limb. He has since gone completely lame in the foot and requires surgery to transfer tendons, release contracted tissues, and try to regain basic function. Regrettably, this is a common disabling condition caused by poorly administered injections at ill-equipped health clinics in the villages.
Treatment is as follows:
• Casts: to stretch the ankle and soft tissues before surgery. This makes for a more effective surgical reconstruction (3-4 weeks)
• Surgery: to transfer and / or release tendons
• Casts: while the foot heals in the proper position (4-8 weeks)
• Braces: which he’ll wear for at least a year to prevent recurrence and support the foot
Way to go Hawks!!