Nine year-old Abraham Villavicencio, took his first steps and is wearing his first pair of shoes. He is one of those children born with a congenital deformity in both feet called “Club foot”.
Abraham grew leaning his body on his heels and using 12 pair of stockings on each leg. His mother, Olivia relates that in spite of financial shortcomings, Abraham has been attended to in different Health Institutions in Guayaquil and other cities in Ecuador with no results.
On some occasions his legs were placed in a cast with no visible improvement. Hope vanished while Abraham grew and discrimination in the classroom and among schoolmates became a daily occurrence. However this did not prevent Abraham from standing out in a number of social and sporting activities which garnered him several school prizes.
In spite of being old, Abraham joined the “Ponseti” program carried on by the traumatology area of the Roberto Gilbert Children´s Hospital supported by the Fybeca and Sana Sana Pharmacies since 2013.
The treatment lasted for 3 months during which, according to doctor Jefferson Quiñonez, head of the program, 12 progressive casts were placed as well as minor, non – invasive surgery performed which allowed him to “straighten out both feet and allowed the boy to wear shoes and begin to walk”.
Abraham dreamnt of being a goalkeeper, but today hope returns to his life as he concludes by saying: “I want to be a doctor to heal those children born like me.”
