Dental Charity to Expand Work in Africa
British dental charity, Bridge2Aid, has announced that it will start working in Rwanda, after successfully helping thousands of people in Tanzania.
The charity, which helps to train clinical officers to perform routine dental procedures, has been working in rural communities in Tanzania for many years and volunteer dentists are now preparing to start work in Rwanda, a country that has only eleven qualified dentists.
Many of the people who benefit from the work of Bridge2Aid have never seen a dentist before and a large proportion has extensive decay, which is causing them severe tooth pain.
Clare Roberts is one of the volunteer dentists that have returned to Tanzania time and time again to help out. She is currently preparing to leave her day job at Leeds General Infirmary to visit Tanzania, where working conditions are very different. The facilities, which are few and far between, are very basic, with no electricity or running water and the task is made even more difficult by the fact that most people do not speak any English.
Bridge2Aid, based in Garforth, Leeds, is making a real difference in Tanzania. Not only do the teams of volunteers treat thousands of people to relieve them from pain, they also train people out in the communities to enable them to provide care for others after the volunteers have returned home.
The charity is run by dentist, Ian Wilson, who said that tooth pain has very negative implications for the Tanzanian people, who struggle to see a dentist or get the pain relief they need due to the shortage of dentists and dental nurses and dental facilities.
Ian Wilson said that Rwanda represents an even greater challenge, as there is only one dentist to every 800,000 people. The charity will work alongside the Rwandan government and charities that are already working in the country.
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