Bridge2AidSmilestyle Staff off to Tanzania in support of Bridge2Aid
More than 70% of the world population is cut off from essential dental care, because it is either not available in their neighbourhood or it is unaffordable to them. The right to oral care as part of health care is a fundamental human right laid down in the Constitutions of the United nations, but in spite of that, due to limited human and financial resources, what conventional dental care there is in developing African countries such as Tanzania, is concentrated in urban centres and is available only to the rich. Although most oral diseases are not life-threatening, dental pain is the second most common pain known to man, and as any of you who have been unfortunate enough to suffer with it will testify, it can be truly dreadful even when help is readily at hand. In countries such as Tanzania where help is often not available, it causes suffering and impairment of the quality of life for many, leads to loss of work days comparable with TB and Malaria, and forces people to turn to unequipped and untrained “traditional healers” who rarely practice cross-infection control leading to broken roots, broken jaws, as well as the transmission of Hepatitis B and C and HIV.
We at Smilestyle have been working with our nominated charity Bridge2Aid (www.bridge2aid.org) for several years now. Bridge2Aid (B2A) is a charity working closely with the Tanzanian Government’s health services in the Mwanza region of North West Tanzania,. They operate a not-for-profit dental clinic, and have a community development programme for the poor. Bridge2Aid is committed to providing helpto local people in a long-term and sustainable way. They are a charity registered in the UK (no. 1092481) with UK based Trustees and administration, and since 2004 have also been a NGO registered in Tanzania.
What does Bridge2Aid do?
- Provides primary dental care and education to communities in Tanzania.
- Equips and trains local health personnel to provide emergency dental care.
- Cares for and empowers some of the poorest in Tanzanian society.
- Allows UK dental professionals and others to help a population less fortunate than the one they normally serve.
This year we are trying to raise money with this Christmas Charity Calendar to finance the visit to Tanzania in October of one of our dental nurses (Kirsty), who will be travelling there with one of our dentists Leo Jurkiw (self-funded), where they will be taking part in Bridge2Aid’s Dental Volunteer Programme. The Dental Volunteer Programme was developed by Bridge2Aid in partnership with the Tanzanian government and is a fabulous concept which rather than simply giving aid actually enables the people of Tanzania to help themselves! In this programme, three times a year, groups of volunteer dentists and nurses travel from the UK to Tanzania where they work one-to-one with “Rural Clinical Officers” (paramedics employed by the Tanzanian health service to provide primary healthcare). They train these medical personnel in dental first aid, specifically the diagnosis of dental pain, local anaesthesia and dental extractions. Upon completion of the two week course the Rural Clinical Officers receive a dental certificate and a basic dental kit which enables them to then treat their own patients. In this way, over the last 10 years, Bridge2Aid have been able to reach and alleviate the pain of literally tens of thousands of people in Tanzania.
If we go to Tanzania to do some charity dental work, we could probably help a hundred or so people in two weeks. If we go to Tanzania to train a Rural Clinical Officer in basic dental first aid, we can indirectly over a period of years help many, many thousands of people, as well as empowering the Tanzanian people to help themselves rather than them relying on handouts. The most exciting aspect of this scheme is that now the Clinical Officers who were trained several years ago and have acquired a lot of experience, are now beginning to train RCOs in their own right!
Thank you for your generosity – together we will change people’s lives!
