Dr. Moyo: A Congolese Clubfoot Champion
Dr. Cyril Ilho Moyo understands the weight of living with a disability. He’s carried it.
Dr. Moyo grew up with a young cousin who had clubfoot. He carried his cousin to school because, in rural areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a disability puts everything in jeopardy—education, livelihood, survival.
“In the village, running is life,” Dr. Moyo says. “Running to get water. Running to get food. Running to get to school. So, any deformity impairing your mobility is a problem.”
Dr. Moyo recalls his family’s fruitless search to find a mission hospital equipped to provide treatment. “I experienced with [my cousin] the stigma, the pain, and the desperation,” he says.
Perhaps this is why at school, Dr. Moyo became drawn to fixing—and restoring—broken things. He thought he might become a mechanic. “God has made me like a mechanic,” he says. “But instead of repairing metal, I am repairing bones.”
From Congo to CURE
The path to becoming an orthopedic surgeon in one of the most under-resourced regions of the world is so limited that Zambia has only 1.1 surgical specialists per 100,000 people. (For comparison, the United States has 54.)†
Dr. Moyo believes God orchestrated his footsteps, which led him to study orthopedics and trauma surgery at Uganda’s Makerere University, around the world for fellowships, and then to work with CURE.
After training and serving with CURE’s hospitals in Niger and Uganda, Dr. Moyo now serves as an orthopedic surgeon at CURE Zambia. Generous support from CURE donors makes it possible for him to perform the orthopedic surgeries that restore mobility—and hope—to children with treatable disabilities like Dorcas.
She was born with clubfoot, a condition that kept her from school and made walking difficult and painful. After two successful surgeries, Dorcas’s feet are straight and she’s walking into a bright future.
Training to Multiply Impact
Because there are hundreds of thousands more children with treatable disabilities like Dorcas throughout Zambia, Dr. Moyo helps train approximately four orthopedic surgeons each year.
He says, “We train more people because as much as we try our best to cover the whole country, we can’t. So, empowering others to do the same work is a blessing to the whole nation.”
Dr. Moyo’s impact extends beyond Zambia— back to the DRC —where he eventually returned to surgically correct his cousin’s clubfoot. Today, that cousin is a successful lawyer.
Dr. Moyo now realizes that, from the beginning, God always intended for him to mend things, to model the gospel by redeeming what’s broken. He says, “When I look back, I say, ‘God knew who He wanted me to be, and I’m just a servant for His service.’”
CURE is grateful for the generous partners around the world who make it possible for surgeons like Dr. Moyo to provide surgeries that restore the mobility children need to run, walk, and play!
Make a gift that demonstrates the love of Christ to more children in need by providing the surgical care they urgently need.
† “Surgical Specialist Workforce (per 100,000 population) – United States, Zambia,” The World Bank, October 9, 2023, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.MED.SAOP.P5?locations=US-ZM
