Jitesh is an incredibly smart 16-year-old who’s top of his class, loves science, and absolutely adores cricket.
He keeps score while watching matches on TV and can tell you all the top players’ bowling and batting averages. But he has never played the game he loves…
“I want to play cricket, but I can’t. I think if my feet were better, I would be able to play.” – Jitesh
Please, will you help Jitesh walk free from pain with a gift before Easter Sunday, 20 April?
Do you know the cricketing phrase, “on the back foot”?
It means you’re defensive and vulnerable in the face of a bowler’s onslaught. Just like Jitesh has been in real life ever since being born with a disability called clubfoot.
You could say that Jitesh has been on the back foot his whole life. At the back of every queue. Permanently vulnerable to pain, prejudice, and poverty in the face of life’s onslaught.
All because of clubfoot — a condition that’s completely avoidable.
But you can help him to get on the front foot for the first time in his life through your Easter gift!
A completely treatable disability holds Jitesh back
In Australia, children born with clubfoot receive corrective treatment straight away. However, in Nepal, where Jitesh was born, this is not always the case.
Tragically, in communities like Jitesh’s, where access to adequate healthcare is not the norm, clubfoot frequently goes untreated. This is called neglected clubfoot.
As a result of Jitesh’s neglected clubfoot, he has grown up in terrible pain that has only got worse as his feet continued to turn in more and more until they were completely pointed inwards.
Jitesh’s father, Manoj, would dearly love to help his son, but the cost of treatment is far beyond his means, and very few families know help is even possible.
“I didn’t know that his leg could be treated. It was two months ago that I found out that this could actually be treated. But I couldn’t afford the treatment on my own.” – Manoj, Jitesh’s father
But even at the late age of 16, with his feet now twisted at a terrible angle so that every step is horrifyingly painful, there is hope.
And that hope is you.
This will be the biggest year of Jitesh’s life
You can help Jitesh through a whole year of repeat surgeries and rehabilitation.
At the end of this year, lies the most wonderful prize… Jitesh will be able to walk!
And not only that. Jitesh will be free from the pain and ridicule from others. He will have his independence back.
He’ll then be able to do all the things he dreams of, like walking to school without needing the physical support of his brothers.
Or going to the toilet on his own for the first time in his life – a routine Jitesh is desperate to be rid of!
Please help Jitesh get on the front foot for the first time in his life by sending a life-changing Easter gift.
Jitesh on the back foot
Without treatment, people like Jitesh grow up suffering excruciating pain in their feet and legs — pain that grows worse over time.
“It is difficult for me to walk around and also to go to the toilet in school. They make fun of me in the community and school. I feel sad.” – Jitesh
Jitesh on the front foot
In an ideal world, Jitesh would have received treatment at birth, and never experienced the pain, stigma and sadness that has affected him so deeply. But with your help today, a new life of hope awaits…
“I’d be able to walk, and I’ll be very happy.”
Your kindness will help Jitesh through a year of intensive surgery and rehabilitation under the expert guidance of his CBM-funded medical team.
When Jitesh emerges from hospital, a whole world of opportunity will be open to him. Unhindered, he’ll be able to realise the potential locked up inside him for the benefit of so many.
Jitesh wants to be an engineer and do great things…
“I will study and will go on to become an engineer after I have recovered. I want to do good work being an engineer.”
This Easter let’s celebrate the gift of living hope that changed the world. Let’s share that gift by filling Jitesh’s life with hope!
Three wonderful ways your Easter gift can help
Mobility Aids:
You can help provide aids like crutches and wheelchairs, so people like Jitesh can recover and build strength after surgery.
Life-changing Surgery and rehabilitation:
You can help someone like Jitesh get the surgery and the full support they need post-surgery to walk free of pain and break free from the cycle of poverty and disability for good.
Outreach:
You could help support outreach workers to find people like Jitesh and treat their condition before surgery is too late.
You can bring so much hope to a family like Jitesh’s this Easter!
Help stop a completely treatable disability from destroying Jitesh’s future
Without help, Jitesh faces a future of worsening pain, deepening stigma and discrimination, and the very real risk that he may never be able to complete his education and go on to fulfil his true potential.
But through your kindness and generosity, he can become the man he knows he can be.
An engineer. A cricketer. Maybe a leader who has known great pain, adversity and injustice, and learned how to triumph over them all.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”
1 Peter 1:3