 Hello then, many thanks for keeping us company. We are beginning with a program quite differently. I'm having two amazing ladies who are doing amazing thing out here, Bridget and Anne. We want to talk about the club food society. They are helping us to know what is this condition that is out here and how can we help people going through the same problem. Good morning. Good morning. Good to have you here. Thank you. I want you Bridget to tell me about club society and what it is all about. Okay. Club food society we really formed last year and we launched the first year in Kenya on 3rd June 2019 worldwide. Okay. I personally I have club food. It's called pylite roll. It has affected my legs. So we met with Anne Oyo in social media and we had the same problem and we sat together and we started like we need to start a society to assist people living with club food. Yeah. When you when you when you met Bridget I'm supposing you people you met because of this one particular item. How has the relationship been for the last say one year and what has been the challenges in in this society? We haven't had quite a challenge because now is when we are trying to realize what's it why is it this way what's how is the best food forward. But the reason as to why we met was basically because of pain. This condition especially during the cold season there is a lot of pain. We experienced muscle cramps, foot pain, foot stiffness. So in point in time when I met her I was looking for medication for my feet because one morning I woke up and my feet were so stiff and I was like am I the only one living with this thing because on the streets you walk you know you wouldn't identify that this person has this condition or because it's generally lumped up as a physical disability. There is no distinction that this is club food or this is food. Yeah so basically we met because of pain. So far so good the journey has been good we have met a number of people through that we have met a number of adults and more especially the adults because the children you find it's correctable. But the adults once you have like the bones have matured and you just have to give the day to day cope. Then that brings me to the question how does does it come about is this something that you're born with or you may develop a late in life? No you are born with yeah okay mostly like we haven't known the course of it but people say maybe due to less amniotic fluid in irritants but we don't have the really what the course of it yeah. So it has still remains to be a mystery to many so in this case if it is not known how it occurs then how do you go about it is there a particular treatment? Yes like and say that from one to five years it can be corrected yes when it is early identified yeah. I didn't get quite the name of the condition quite well and we'll be seeing some of the pictures to see how the condition is and maybe now from then you can tell how big the problem is now and when someone has this condition you talked about the cold when it's cold you feel a lot of pain do is it the medicines you go for or there's some therapy you undergo? Basically stipulated you're supposed to have physiotherapy as an adult with this condition but as you know physio is very expensive in our country so then you try to manage it's either a painkiller or a heat rub so during the cold season it's like a tug of war you don't know what to do because it's like everything is collapsing down there so at point in time we are doing club food we want to share each one's experience and know how you managing as an adult what are you doing to manage the pain what's your experience with pain how can we do it better is there a way we need to sit down and lobby for some of this thing like the medication of painkillers or maybe lobby for low physio costs yes because you find the adults we are quite a number and we do not know now how to deal with this condition because we are adults with grown up right so because of maybe a stigma shame or you just keep some of these things to yourself so for like me and Brigid we just want people to open up like for me it's mine isn't quite so severe because I can't wear normal shoes but you see when I go to a shoe shop to buy a shoe the shoe attendant will look at me very mysteriously because you know I walk like a duck I'll show my walking I walk like a duck so then you know when you're going to a shoe shop to like fit in a shoe they're busy looking at your leg and they're trying to wonder hey you wear my shoe and then it will fold because already what you're wearing is already folded yeah so then for us we want to reduce that stigma we want people to come out and then we also want to lobby for government to lower the cost of boots boots are quite expensive the one Brigid is wearing a pair goes for seven thousand wow my own are already spoiled so then I have to deal with wearing just the normal shoes yes it seems to be quite a problem especially with the stigma now I saw when she was trying to say I don't know because your friends you are smiling so I don't know someone out there if I get the same story and then I smile how would you feel about it and how has been how have you dealt with the with the stigma from the people socially how do you how do people handle you and how do you take it okay personally okay before I used to like when I'm walking on the street and then people stare at me I used to feel that like oh they're really staring at me it's like I'm a less human so it's reached a point where I had to accept to myself you know you need to talk to yourself you are created this way you can't change your legs so when we met with Anu she's this she has that spirit like mine so even we make fun of ourselves and some people they can't so I gave the way I was brought up like my family they've shown me love so I feel like I'm okay I am a human being I cannot change the situation yes and I need my future is I need to search forward yeah and what would be your message to some people out there who have a certain disability and they can't accept it they are just holding back they can't come out here clearly and say this is me they accept themselves how do someone now get to this point of saying this is me I accept it and doesn't matter what you say or what you see I think you know it's not easy someone must talk to them like someone like me who have overcome the situation I need to talk to them to tell them this is how we are created we can't change the situation accept yourself and move on yeah so if you have that fitness on you you can go on yes so and tell me about the club food society the funds you're looking for and how it has been working and by the way how much people have you how many people have you reached out to or so far and how has been the reception in terms of how you tell them do you have special programs do you have ways of interacting with them or we just meet at a certain day and then it's over we will meet again okay so far we have reached at least we have in the society we have 300 members registered so for our outreach programs we go specifically to counties so we've done kabsabit so far so good now we want to move to another county most probably kaka mega so our outreach basically is we try to find these people where they are and more especially the adults not the children because the children there is a way that this condition can be corrected if detected early so these adults we try to reach out to them find out what they're doing see the kind of shoes they're wearing and then try to like get them to have the correct shoes so for our kabsabit outreach we had about 30 members whom we are going to fit in with shoes this year before we proceed to kaka mega okay so your next count is kaka mega yes our next count is kaka mega so basically it's just to fit them with shoes the proper shoes about the psychological or the psychosocial basically Brigitte said it's you to work on it yes okay there is the way society defines us and then there's the way you define yourself so it's just a matter of self-acceptance talking to yourself every other day every other day every other day people should not see it like it's a punishment from god yeah you know there is always that idea that god cannot give you everything but god has given you everything but it's good or bad it's you know whether it's good or bad you have to make the best out of it so it's just you to talk yourself talk yourself talk yourself yes we do have those up and downs those down moments but it's just a matter of speaking to yourself engaging yourself because if you're not there for yourself then you'll be nobody there for you perfect yes and then you fall into depression so when you when you're going to this count is especially not that you have mentioned uh kabsabit now how do you create awareness how do you make these people now come together we use the national council for personal disability we use church we use the media new community around yeah so in life for kabsabit church assisted national council with personal disability and the community around together these people so that we identify them yeah so then once we found them then we like registered them we saw the problems they have but you see it's not only about a shoe it's not only about a psychosocial issue it's a whole general issue but for us we want to ask you with the comfort that at least you have something for mobility you know like someone who's running on a track they can't run without so it's the same for us without those shoes you're not comfortable yes so Brigitte Award and so much talk about the the children are can be corrected now allow me to ask this if i if at childhood someone would have been corrected then how do you find ourselves here is it our our parents who didn't notice or it's something that just came up okay like i've come to realize that most people with club food you can identify your child at early age but after that maybe uh some parents are their kids so they can't get the information or people are like um like thinking that club food is a polio of which it is not yeah so at that age after maybe after five years their child need to have a surgical boot it's called surgical boots yes and oh okay so maybe we can say maybe because of fear and shame or lack of funds would be a contributor to why someone now would get to all right so what information are you sending out there to mothers who are hiding their children or if anything happens what um mitigation missions now do you have okay i'm talking to a parent who was a child living with disability that don't i try children just let them do their own duties they are we are talented bring them out and don't be ashamed of your child the society can assist you yes don't be ashamed because i believe that people living with disability there are blessings to our to their families yeah true true now um and you have a fundraising coming soon to help uh find some persons with shoes now that you're going to use it kakamega yes so is it uh that you want to take uh shoes there or you have some persons you have identified so far you want to okay so kakamega we have about 50 which is quite uh larger number seven so we started a 100 pop challenge campaign in november to actually boost whatever funds we have because currently we are not funded by anyone we do most of the things from our own pockets even as we go to give the shoes for for kapsabit that is like we did our own self funding self fundraising a monster yes so the dinner we are having a barefoot dinner we rarely take photos of our feet when was the last time you took a photo of your feet bare feet as a man i don't remember we're doing such yes but for ladies i know i've seen several because of the it's very in we yeah we don't yes we rarely do photos of our own feet so this year we decided we'd have a barefoot dinner and we'd have a barefoot walk or a marathon so we're starting with the barefoot dinner so for the barefoot dinner we want people to come barefeeted for valentines so valentines is the time that people show their love to the other person right at this time round as we want you to show your love to the feet because the feet are the ones that enable you to move around true feet are the ones that make you drive yes yes so their feet generally controls let's say 95% functionality of the body yeah for their mobility yes and more especially their mobility how thoughtful i love their analogy so then this dinner will be a barefoot dinner we want everybody to come to the fun that will raise will go to enabling adults with clubfoot to get boots kaka mega and then the other two three counties that we have identified which we're still receiving numbers so yes we want people to come barefooted on valentine then have their photos taken of their feet wow that must be amazing to see people walking barefoot come up to the house and some of us grew up in the villages you know i love it come to think like me i can like people living with clubfoot if you remove my shoes i can't walk yeah i'm done i didn't know that yeah you should know so what so the analogy will it be then the analogy is they able to come barefooted yes so those who have disability like clubfoot who come in shoes so the essence now it's not time to see yeah time now to see you without shoes okay because as we've always not had the proper shoes so now it's your turn walk without shoes and feel how i feel minus the proper shoes yes so what will we be the dinner is at my motel in south sea yes so the details so we'll be sharing these posters i see parkapu is 7500 yes and then the other one is single is 4000 yes manageable to a number of canyons yes here too is because we see you there it's on 14 yes all right let me not promise when i promise i keep my word so let me not commit myself here but anyway i i appreciate what you people are doing and it's quite encouraging and now that you have mentioned of kapsabit kakamega do you have a certain region that has we can say we have big number and would you know why it is what you can attribute it to okay we don't have like you know statistics like the way we have statistics for malaria statistics for it's here again now so for us we started clubfoot so that we have this statistics that even when we go to government and not before them to reduce the cost of the boot then we will have statistics so this year next year and maybe let's say for the next three years we'll be doing that data collection then once we have that data it's sound enough then we can now lobby government and tell them hey you guys look here we are one million so we need this cost to go down we need you to put for us a factory where this work is especially dedicated because you find even that would for me to get it to take a month yeah so that means i'm immobile for a whole month it's not even a month it takes even three months yes together next issues i almost ask that question because if you you have mentioned the government the government i thought we can have a local fund and how much would they go for if we have a specific person who can and how do they design you know these shoes cannot be made by a local fund when you see they are on the road it needs a specialist yes some like they need to take even a cast like the shape of my feet so yes like they need orthopedic it's an orthopedic technician would ask this yes so there is a cast that is done and then with that cast they should be able to make me a good yes but then you find the cast leaves some space so now we are trying a woodlust yeah there's the photo of a woodlust i was hoping we could have that i don't know that my director will know we want a woodlust yes that's the measurement for the woodlust that we were doing for the gentleman so that woodlust is actually now produce one side of my foot and then the other one so you find both our feet it's my feet and half it cannot be the same yes yeah so then it has to be done separate separate separate for each and every other person then you find also my left leg is not the same as my right leg yes so the here is where now you you would like the government to come into aid and seriously to enable a number of people at least i think the society is i need to know this and i'm happy you creating awareness to such issues because i know of a people who don't like kata wengine when you're making a wheelchair they would not want to be associated with to create awareness i don't know why people fear are you people you're doing amazing thank you so much for coming bridge it and and i wish you the very best and all right otherwise thank you so much for coming and we appreciate the good work you're doing to the society and keep those smiles no one would know what is going on yeah until they inquire you're doing amazing job thank you so much back home thank you so much for keeping us company keep it right 254 my name is a deliver hillary see you in a bit