John: A "Can Do" Kid from Kentucky

John loves to run around his living room, chasing after his big brother.

Support Programs in the U.S.

With parents struggling to overcome addiction, heartbreaking poverty and a birth defect, many people might have given up on a little boy from rural Kentucky simply named John. But not the dedicated workers at Save the Children’s rural U.S. Programs. 

Few, if any, early childhood development services are available in America’s poor, rural communities, so Save the Children launched Early Steps to School Success (ESSS). Among other things, the program provides education and support services for children like John, as well as for parents and caregivers.  

John’s family, including his brother and pregnant mother, was already involved with Save the Children when the doctor discovered the little boy would be born with a potentially crippling birth defect known as “club feet”. 

Working with Save the Children throughout the remainder of her pregnancy, John’s mom got the support she needed to make sure he would get the surgeries he needed to correct his club feet started shortly after his birth. 

The brave little boy spent several months in corrective casts on both feet after each surgery. Despite being confined by the casts, John was never behind on any of his ESSS screenings of his development. 

“I would call his mom after each surgery and if I couldn’t catch up with her, she would call me back and keep me informed on how the surgery went,” said a local ESSS coordinator described regarding the mother’s dedication to John and the program. 

The coordinator also stated, “I would be sure to schedule my next home visit as soon as I could once he returned home from the hospital so that I could provide his mom the emotional support that she needed. His mom tells me all the time how glad she was that she was in the program [in order] to get him the help he needed so soon and without any complications.”

Thanks to his mother’s diligence and the support the family received through ESSS, John was walking before he turned a year old! Of John, his mother says, “When he was first born I thought it would be forever before he started walking. I never dreamed he would walk this soon.”