Foot care non-profit finds new home in Claremont

WESLEY FORD|Published 3 years ago

The South African Lower Limb Foundation team at their new premises, from left, are director Joye Pinn, office administrator Melanie Adams- Petersen, project manager Shaun Isaacs, lecturer at the SA College for Foot Health Practitioners Jacqueline Adams, security officer Edward Manus, principal of SA College for Foot Health Practitioners Bernadette Manus and personal assistant Taylor Davies.

A non-profit organisation that offers affordable foot care and looks for signs of diabetes moved to its new premises in Claremont on Monday.

The South African Lower Limb Foundation has been around for six years, and podiatrist Joye Pinn, its director, says the foundation’s main purpose is to minimise amputations.

Ms Pinn has more 30 years experience in the foot-health industry, which includes 23 years in the UK and seven years in Cape Town.

The foundation previously had premises in Belvedere Road, Claremont, where it saw about 70 people a day in six treatment rooms.

“We gave up that premise in July during the third wave of Covid-19 because it was getting too small and too busy,” says Ms Pinn.

The new premises, which are also in Belvedere Road, will have 20 treatment rooms and will be able to assist 200 people per day.

“We do run a home-visit service as well for clients that can’t make it to our office,” says Ms Pinn.

The foundation’s 30 employees include foot-health practitioners, a dietician, a vascular technician and podiatrists.

“We want to provide affordable and accessible foot care,” says Ms Pinn.

The foundation is also home to a foot-health practitioners’ training college that Ms Pinn founded, and she hopes to open more clinics in various communities.

Ayesha Davids, from Woodstock, was trained at the college and joined the foundation as a foot-care practitioner in July.

“I learned how to work on pressure points of feet, and it's interesting working with different clients everyday,” she says.

The foundation is appealing for financial support to buy equipment for the new premises, including more beds, podiatry chairs, Dremel drills for foot-care, towels and office furniture.

Ms Pinn is also selling her book, Put Your Best Foot Forward, for R50 a copy to raise money for the organisation. “The book is about foot care, how to take care of your feet, different types of foot disorders and composition of feet,” she says.

Contact Ms Pinn at 060 717 7645 or joyepinn1211@gmail.com for more information or to buy a copy of the book.

Foot-care practitioners, in blue, and intern foot-care practitioners, in green, in the foot care and reflexology room at the South African Lower Limb Foundation’s new premises in Claremont.