Dr. Rahimi and the team at Palermo Orthodontics are thrilled to be a part of the ‘18th Man’ charity drive this year! We recently conducted a mouth guard clinic with the Oakville Hornets Novice B hockey team, whom Dr. Rahimi is proud to sponsor. The Hornets, a team of seventeen, were also awesome at raising funds for their ‘18th Man’. They were able to raise in excess of $750.00 for their “teammate” in need. Palermo Orthodontics then matched monies raised by the team to donate to this worthwhile and empowering cause.
Introducing Our “18th Man”
The Oakville Hornets Hockey team’s 18th man is Akechi. At 5 years old, living in Uganda, she was born with two clubbed feet which is a birth defect that makes the feet point inward and means that she has to walk on the tops of her feet. She can only walk short distances as it is painful and her feet develop abscesses especially in the hot season. She can’t go to school because she cannot walk that far.
Her parents are peasant farmers which means they are very poor and live on whatever vegetables they can grow in their garden. The thatched hut behind them is where the whole family sleeps. They live in a remote village and nurses from the charity One4Another had to take an overgrown path off a dirt road until they finally found their home. Akechi lives with her mom and dad and grandma plus her older brother and younger sister. The boy in the green is a relative who lives nearby.
Nurses at One4Another put out a radio announcement on a local station near where Akechi lives advertising that One4Another wanted to help kids with clubbed feet and other conditions that require surgery. The parents heard the announcement and called the next day. Toni (a One4Another nurse) went out to their home and found that indeed their first and second born children both have bilateral clubbed feet. When Toni showed them pictures on his phone of kids One4Another worked on that have had their clubbed feet corrected they were shocked. They were eager to get help!
How We Are Going to Make a Difference
The Oakville Novice B Hornets is making a huge difference in the life of this young girl by naming her the “18th Man”. All funds raised by the team will be going directly to fund the operation performed by the team at One4Another International. Specifically, they are going to arrange for her operation to lengthen her achilles tendon and reconstruct her ankle joint so that she can straighten her feet. First she’ll go into casts to loosen the tendons and joints for several weeks. Then she’ll have her operation. Then she’ll go back into casts for a couple months. After that she’ll be ready for braces and will begin walking.
We look forward to sharing photos and updates with you showing Akechi’s progress and ultimately we’ll all raise a cheer when she’s walking on the bottoms of her feet!
Want to help?
In this time of giving, if you would like to donate to this worthy cause yourself, you can connect with One4Another on their facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/One4AnotherInternational/ and click the Donate button. Feel free to ask any questions you might have and join us in giving a helping hand to our fellow human beings that need it most!
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