Oral diseases currently affect around 3.5 billion people in the world – it is primarily the poorest, most disadvantaged and most marginalised populations who are suffering the most. Bridge2Aid is working in exciting new ways to have a bigger impact on oral health, and a lower impact on the environment. Bridge2Aid is going to be flying fewer volunteers to Africa, and working much more closely with African dental professionals. These local professionals are going to be delivering the majority of the charity’s training, which is going to cover much more than previously and will allow Bridge2Aid to be more nimble and able to support projects in a wider range of countries, and impact on many thousands of more lives.
In February, Bridge2Aid worked in partnership with Tanzanian dentists to deliver training and education around the issue of Infant Oral Mutilation to nearly 500 health workers, community educators and, school teachers and teachers in northern Tanzania. You can find out more about this work here. In March, Bridge2Aid are worked with dental therapists in Malawi to train 90 community health workers, teachers, youth workers to become Oral Health Promoters in their villages. Much more is planned for the rest of the year.
If you would like to support Bridge2Aid’s work, and help prevent oral disease and pain, sign up to the Treat 1: Train 1 scheme. Just donate the income from treating 1 patient in pain in your practice in the UK each month and we can train 1 Oral Health Promoter in a rural community in East Africa. Click here for more info.
