Bridging Compassion and Technology to Combat Clubfoot Across Africa 

Background 


Hope Walks is a U.S.-based nonprofit committed to eradicating the impact of clubfoot, a congenital condition that affects more than 200,000 children across the world each year. If left untreated, clubfoot will make the simple act of walking difficult or impossible. While clubfoot is highly treatable when caught early, access and proximity to timely care remain out of reach for many families  in Africa and Latin America where Hope Walks serves. 


Hope Walks trains medical professionals in each country to treat clubfoot using the Ponseti Method, the globally accepted standard of treatment. The initial process involves weekly casts on the child’s legs for four to eight weeks. After this, children wear a foot brace for 23 hours a day for three months, and then at night and nap time until the age of five. If the braces are not worn until the age of five, the condition could relapse.


The mothers of the children said that it is sometimes difficult to get their kids to want to wear the braces. They mentioned that if the braces were bright and colorful, the children would want to wear them more.


Hope Walks stepped into this gap—not only with a solution, but with a creative, community-driven model that connects people across the world in a shared mission of healing.



The Model 


At the heart of their model is a custom-fabricated brace, made from leather and other locally sourced materials, that keeps the child’s foot in proper alignment after the treatment phase of casting is complete. What makes Hope Walks unique is the way they invite supporters to sponsor and decorate these braces through events called Paint Parties. Whether at a small gathering or a national conference, participants paint the brace leathers that will eventually be made into  a child’s brace—literally leaving their mark on a life-changing medical device and - most importantly - a child’s life. 


Once painted and returned, these braces are assembled and fitted by local partners. Supporters then receive updates and images, sometimes even of the children wearing the very braces they helped fund and decorate. 



The Challenge 


Over the years, Hope Walks managed over 13,000 leather units—each with its own journey through inventory, painting, assembly, and delivery. However, the tools they were using to track this lifecycle couldn’t keep up: 


  • Manual tracking of inventory and party logistics was time-consuming and error-prone. 
  • Keeping up with approvals for child images and name usage introduced significant compliance risk. 
  • Field partners often lacked stable internet access, creating bottlenecks for uploading photos or confirming brace delivery. 
  • Donor updates were difficult to automate and scale effectively. 


In short: the mission was ready to grow, but the systems weren’t. 



The Solution 


Hope Walks partnered with Solertiae to design and implement a new, integrated system combining Salesforce, AppSheet, and Solertiae Sites: 


  • Salesforce now serves as the central order fulfillment and inventory management hub, tracking every brace from procurement to paint to placement. 
  • AppSheet was deployed as the field-facing interface, allowing local teams—even with limited internet access—to securely upload child photos, enter delivery details, and confirm application progress. 
  • Solertiae Sites powers the “Painter Portal”, where supporters can: 
  • Track the status of the leathers they painted 
  • See updates and photos (with proper permissions) 
  • Engage with the broader mission story
  • The system also incorporates: 
  • Automated donor communication and image approval flows 
  • Batch upload support for large events 
  • Lifecycle tracking to ensure no leather—or child—is lost in the process 


Results 


  • Scalability Achieved: Hope Walks can now confidently expand its Paint Party program, supporting hundreds of simultaneous leather sponsorships without breaking operational flow. 
  • End-to-End Visibility: Every piece of leather can now be tracked from donor to child, ensuring accountability, clarity, and emotional connection. 
  • Increased Donor Engagement: Real-time updates and storytelling features in the portal help deepen the connection between U.S. supporters and children in Africa. 
  • Streamlined Field Operations: AppSheet enables consistent, low-bandwidth data capture—reducing errors and delays in brace delivery tracking. 


Conclusion 


Hope Walks already had a compelling mission and a creative, high-impact model. What they needed was infrastructure that could keep pace with their compassion. 


With Solertiae’s help, they now operate on a platform that blends storytelling, logistics, and donor engagement into a seamless, scalable experience. As they continue to grow and touch more lives, they do so with confidence—knowing their systems are as resilient and hope-filled as the mission itself. 


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