Dental Wellness Trust Volunteer Opportunity

Are you Coming to Cape Town for the for IADR/AMER General Session in June? Why not take the opportunity and participate in making a real change?

Cape Town is surrounded by crowded townships in which more than one million people live in poverty, also suffering from very poor oral health. The Dental Wellness Trust has initiated an ongoing program that involves instructing teachers to educate children about good nutrition and hand washing, and implementing a supervised tooth-brushing program in schools. The Dental Wellness Trust is now inviting IADR delegates to see its work first hand in the township of Khayelitsha, just 20 minutes from Cape Town and to volunteer (for registered dentists and oral hygienists to perform essential preventive and primary dental procedures on the children).

ABOUT US:
The Dental Wellness Trust is a London-based registered charity promoting dental wellness to less fortunate communities in the UK and abroad through innovative oral health education programs.

The Dental Wellness Trust focuses on the preservation and protection of dental health for the public benefit by:

Providing oral health education programmes for children;
Providing oral health education programmes for the elderly; and
Sharing information and disseminating good practice amongst dental health practitioners.

For more information, see this video titled "Introducing the Dental Wellness Trust." Click here to view some more information on the mission of the Dental Wellness Trust.

VOLUNTEER OBJECTIVES:
The group will be led by IADR members, Dr. Linda Greenwall and Dr. Alon Livny, who lead the Dental Wellness Trust project team. Over the course of one morning, volunteers will visit a selection of schools in the township of Khayelitsha. They will have the opportunity to observe the supervised tooth brushing program and perform procedures in mobile dental clinics.

Visit and tour the Township of Khayelitsha.
Meet and discuss the dental research project with representatives from the Dental Wellness Trust, local non-governmental organization (NGO) leaders.
Visit schools involved in the tooth-brushing program.
Perform clinical treatments and preventative measures as far as practically and ethically possible.* (optional)

SCHEDULE: (Subject to change)

Tuesday, June 24, 2014
8 a.m. Departure from official IADR hotels to Khayelitsha.
8:45 a.m. Welcome and Introduction of the project by Drs. Linda Greenwall and Alon Livny.
9 a.m. Visit participating sites; see supervised tooth-brushing in action; talk to local teachers.
11 a.m. Treatment of children using mobile dental units.
12 a.m. Early transport back to Cape Town hotels or optional on-going treatment of children.
3:30 p.m. Return transportation to Cape Town hotels.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

8 a.m. Departure from official IADR hotels to Khayelitsha.
8:45 a.m. Treatment of children using mobile dental units.
12 p.m. Transport back to Cape Town hotels.

VOLUNTEER REQUIREMENTS:

For those interested only to see, but not in clinical involvement – you need only to register. For those who are also interested in clinical volunteering - depending on local regulations, application and nominal fee may be required. The exact terms and requirements are currently being negotiated, which will be later explained in further detail for interested volunteers.


Email: info@dentalwellnesstrust.org for more information and to register as a volunteer, or click here to complete the online form.

NOTE: Nominal fees will apply for those who choose to perform dental procedures. Details will be provided by the Dental Wellness Trust.

http://www.iadr.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?...90#.U3oETygmLFJ

http://dentalwellnesstrust.org/

Projects
The Dental Wellness Trust focuses on the preservation and protection of dental health for the public benefit by:

(a) Providing oral health education programmes for children;

(b) Providing oral health education programmes for the elderly,

(c) Sharing information and disseminating good practice amongst dental health practitioners.

The Dental Wellness Trust will partner with a number of established charities – recognized for their work and with an infrastructure already in place – to help develop its projects and provide sustainable preventative oral health education strategies to help those in need in the UK and abroad.