Rukhsar was born with clubfoot, a disease in which a baby’s feet face inward and, if left untreated, renders them unable to walk.
It can usually be totally healed if detected and addressed early, but for baby Rukhsar, who was born into a Mumbai slum community, that wasn’t an option. She is now five years old, yet she still has difficulty walking.
Rukhsar’s family lives in a slum where municipal water is only available for four hours a day to the whole population of approximately 50,000 people. Rukhsar and her family pay Rs. 500 (7.17 USD) per month on private water purchases. Rukhsar’s father worked as a load lifter and earned a daily paycheck, thus the family could hardly afford food, water, clothes, and housing. So they decided to halt Rukhsar’s basic therapy.
Rukhsar had never attended kindergarten and had spent the majority of her young life playing on the streets of her slum community when Vision Rescue discovered her a year ago. “She has a disability.” Hasinao, her mother, wondered aloud, “How can she go to school?” She was overjoyed to learn that our Beacon Learning Centre, which is located inside their slum community, would warmly accept Rukhsar.
Rukhsar enjoys singing, sketching, playing games, and learning via class activities. She’s so enthusiastic about her education that she tells her mother, “If you’re busy today, I can go to class alone!”
While Rukhsar is happy expanding her mind in our classroom, our medical team began conversations with our partner hospitals, working towards providing her clubfoot subsidised treatment even though it’s nearly five years too late. The doctors reported that Rukhsar required surgery to walk normally one day.
Together with our partners, Vision Rescue fundraised for Rukhsar’s surgery. She underwent casting once a week, ten times over, and then finally a tenotomy surgery. After the surgery, the correction of the club foot on her left side was great, but the right side wasn’t as satisfactory. It took 3-4 more castings on the right to set it correctly.
In November 2019, Rukhsar was able to switch to a Clubfoot Brace. She will be on this brace for 3 years now, following which her clubfoot will be completely corrected. Vision Rescue is hand-holding her through this process and is in constant touch with her orthopedician to ensure thorough follow up.
Rukhsar dreams of becoming a doctor when she grows up. She wants to reach out to children like her, born into poverty, but deserving of rescue and a promising future. We can’t wait to watch her make these dreams come true!
