Last year, we wrote to our supporters about Leonard, a nine-year-old Kenyan boy living with club foot - a congenital condition that caused his foot to turn in at the ankle. This not only made walking almost impossible, but caused Leonard to be ignored, feared and excluded from school.

In the UK, club foot (otherwise known as congenital talipes equinovarus) is corrected by the NHS for free during the first few months of a baby’s life - by a simple series of plaster casts.  Unfortunately, in the rural communities of Kibwezi District where Leonard lives, there is little medical knowledge and scant access to hospitals. Many disabled children are neglected and hidden away because it’s believed they’re cursed. Most never reach their fifth birthday, and of those that do, only ten percent go to school. Even the disabled boys and girls in Kenya who complete their basic education struggle to gain employment because of the stigma surrounding disability, and many end up begging on the street.

Read about how Advantage Africa helped Leonard to walk and put his feet firmly on a pathway out of poverty towards a better life, and how you can support other disabled, orphaned and vulnerable children like Leonard to become independent and reach their potential.