Dental charities visit House of Lords
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- Published: Monday, 04 November 2013 09:32
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A number of likeminded colleagues including Ike Fazal, of Bristol, who have all supported various dental charities in East Africa, were invited by Professor Lord McColl CBE to an evening reception at the House of Lords last Friday 25 Oct.
It was an opportunity, writes Ike, to see some beautiful buildings, meet and mingle with so many selfless people, some with exceptional vision and determination, like Lord Mc Coll himself, and others like Ian (& Andie) Wilson, founder dentist of BRIDGE 2 AID, and Mark Topley , who currently runs it. They have donated a large part of their lives, expertise, dental equipment, consumables and/ or funds, to set up a dental facility to train already skilled local health care workers further, in many remote communities in Tanzania, East Africa, helping them provide diagnoses and emergency dental pain relief, for so many thousands of people who would otherwise not have had any basic dental care whatsoever. With sugar now being a significant part of their diets dental decay is unfortunately a big fact of life in Africa, sometimes untreated dental pain and infections can actually be a matter of life and death.
Bridge 2 Aid has successfully trained 260 workers who now are competent enough to operate “ solo” ; they in turn have helped treat over 2.5 Million poor people to obtain relief of dental pain and sepsis and teach them oral hygiene and dietary advice. In an overall population of 46 Million in Tanzania ,and less than 400 dentists, there is still a long, long way to go to achieve comprehensive basic emergency dental cover for this extremely rural and scattered population. To find out more or make a contribution, no matter how small, please visit: www.bridge2aid.org
Other charities that the team have supported recently, and are hoping to continue to assist with, are :
THE VINE TRUST : please visit : www.vinetrust.org : this is similar venture to the (Medical & Dental) “Mercy” ships project, where so many lives are being saved, and enhanced, by simple low cost treatments, in so many communities in remote and poor parts of the world. The MV Jubillee Hope is a 140 Ton ship that is currently being fitted out for medical and dental care in Greenock Dock, Renfrewshire, Scotland before sailing 4820 Miles via West Africa to Cape Town, and then onto Mombasa, Kenya in Mid Jan 2014. The upper deck will then be stripped to load it on a low loader trailer for the final and perhaps the most challenging part of its journey, 520 miles overland on some difficult roads, to Kisumu on Lake Victoria Nyanza where it will be rebuilt and floated on the largest tropical lake in the world. The Jubillee Hope ( like it’s sister ship ~Amazon Hope based in Peru) will serve some 100,000 villagers in poor communities all around this lake, people who have no easy access to or the means to any basic medical or dental care. They have just been sent an oil free compressor, suction pump and an autoclave for the dental clinic on board the Jubilee Hope.
More information at: http://www.vinetrust.org/jubileeproject
HIP ~ Z www.hipz.org.uk This is a medical charity based in Zanzibar “The Spice Island” Zanzibar 40 Km off the coast of Tanzania, East Africa conjures up so many exotic images : white sandy beaches, warm turquoise seas, beautiful, old world Arab architecture, a mystical, long forgotten place, unspoilt, because time really stood still. It is all that, but there is another side to Zanzibar, which brings a special kind of visitor, Dr Ru MacDonagh, a Consultant Urologist from Taunton, Dr Jon Rees, our local GMP / doctor at Brockway Health Centre, Nailsea, Bristol, amongst several other medical professionals, who have a strong, innate desire to help others less fortunate than ourselves. These remarkable doctors have been instrumental in setting up “HIP Z” Health Improvement Project, ZANZIBAR, a British Charity in a joint venture agreement with the Ministry of Health, Zanzibar : enhancing and saving lives.
Ike Fazal and team is still looking for all kinds of hand instruments and handpieces for all 3 causes ! Please have a look today and send us whatever you have gathering dust ! Please contact Ike: mailto:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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