FORCE FOR GOOD
Bringing Dentistry and Opportunity to Ethiopia
Published: May 07, 2015
On a recent serve trip to Ethiopia, we had the opportunity to help hundreds of kids with no access to dental care. Many of them have lived with painful dental infections for years. The simplest procedures we see at home can be fatal here, so it was truly a blessing to be able to take care of them. In just one week, we were able to provide over 63,000 in donated dentistry to 541 patients in need. These serve trips really impact my perspective on how fortunate we are. The Ethiopians we served in rural Tigray have so little materially, but so much joy.
On top of serving the dental needs of the community, we also had the opportunity to visit an elementary school. The kids proudly welcomed us and showed off their school. This village is one of the lucky ones; our generous patients back home have donated to our partner, charity: water, to provide clean drinking water. This allows the children to attend school without illness and thrive—even in limited conditions. Local village girls, whose only duty previously was to walk miles to an unsanitary water source and bring it back home, are now able to enroll in school and receive a formal education. I had the opportunity to speak to the entire school on behalf of The Smile Generation®. My goal was to inspire, but instead—they inspired me!
Diplomat of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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