Each year, thousands of children in Bangladesh are born with clubfoot, a correctable condition that, without early treatment, can lead to lifelong disability. For families with limited access to quality healthcare, untreated clubfoot can mean exclusion from education, reduced earning potential and entrenched poverty. 

Although an effective treatment exists, access has long been limited in low-resource settings. The challenge was not clinical knowledge, but delivery: how to embed a proven intervention into public health systems in a way that could scale, endure beyond donor funding and be locally owned. 

The solution 

Walk for Life was established in 2009 as a partnership between Action on Poverty and the Glencoe Foundation, founded by Australian philanthropist Colin Macfarlane. From the outset, it applied the gold-standard Ponseti method, a non-surgical approach with a 98 percent success rate, delivering early correction of clubfoot. 

Designed to move beyond charity, Walk for Life progressed from an initial donor-funded phase into a franchise style, public–private model aligning philanthropic capital, community contribution and government partnership. Families who can afford to do so contribute to treatment costs, subsidising access for others. Today, more than half of families contribute at least part of their costs. 

Local healthcare workers are trained in the Ponseti method as well as clinic management and outcome tracking. Clinics are co-designed with communities and embedded within Bangladesh’s national health system, enabling local ownership and independent operation without ongoing foreign aid. 

Results and system-level impact 

Over more than a decade, Walk for Life has progressed through Action on Poverty’s full impact pathway: from catalytic investment, to scale, to legacy. 

Since 2009, the program has treated more than 30,000 children and now operates 34 locally run clinics across Bangladesh, collectively treating over 2,000 children each year. Clinics are managed by Bangladeshi health professionals and integrated into public health infrastructure. 

The program has also established in-country manufacturing, producing 150,000 Ponseti braces to date and exporting them to five countries. 

At the family level, the impact is profound. Fahim, from Bhola, began treatment at one month old. After five rounds of casting, he now walks and plays like any other child. His mother reflects: “I was afraid my son would struggle all his life, but now he has a future.” 

A legacy model 

Walk for Life shows what is possible when philanthropic capital is used to build systems, not stand-alone projects. Through community co-design, a public–private partnership approach, government integration and disciplined outcome tracking, it has moved from catalytic support to sustained scale. Today the model is embedded within Bangladesh’s public health system and operates without ongoing donor investment — a durable solution built to last.