PROJECT SONRISA
In
Argentina traditional treatment of oral diseases is costly and families
of low income have little access to dental care. Argentina does offer
free health services, but the absence of government investment in
dental care and proper oral hygiene awareness is leading to serious
oral health complications within the slum communities, often with
irreversible effects.
Families from the slums are
often under educated and have little or no knowledge of oral hygiene.
Under-funded public health services in low-income areas offer only the
possibility of extractions. Restorative care, even for children, is not an option. Thus, cavities, tooth loss, tooth decay, abscesses, pain and infection
are commonplace even among the youngest of children.
Phase 1 of Project Sonrisa was launched in March 2005.
Together with some help from the local authorities of the San Martin
Municipality, a team of trained volunteers started dental hygiene
sessions for slum children (and when possible their parents).
Today, after almost two years the dental hygiene sessions continue at a
rate of about two a month. Our sessions still run entirely with
volunteers and we use pedagogical methods such as music and puppets to
teach children the basic rules of dental and oral hygiene. All children
are registered in the program.
Due
to the particular environment the children are coming from, each
session is followed by back up sessions as a means to constantly
reinforce the importance of hygiene all year round. At the end of each
session free toothbrushes and fluoridated toothpaste are handed out to
the participants.
For most of the children, it is their first toothbrush.
We work through the slums using the soup kitchen and kindergarten
network to ensure that training takes place in a safe and orderly
environment and to benefit from the collaboration and support of both
the teachers and local volunteers working in the kitchens.
Since
March 2005 to end of 2008, Todos Juntos has distributed over 4200 toothbrushes and 3600 tubes of toothpaste to slum children and their
parents.
Phase 2
After
several months of moving from slum to slum the team noticed how
severely damaged almost 80 per cent of the children’s’ teeth were.
Most were suffering from a variety of serious problems such as bleeding
gums, decayed teeth and oral infection that brushing alone, no matter
how regularly, would not solve. None of these children had access to
restorative dental care.
We therefore set up a
project proposal for a dental clinic where children registered in our
program could receive free dental care.
We started negotiations in October 2005 with the Health Department of the San Martin Municipality.
In
March 2006, we finally signed a three-year lease with the Mr. Ricardo
Ivoskus, the Mayor of San Martin, for the free use on a part time basis
of a small abandoned dental clinic in a public health centre outside
the Carcova slum.
Thanks to extensive
fundraising and our corporate sponsors, the room has been completely
renovated. Electricity, heating, plumbing and a new dental chair
donated by Colgate Palmolive Argentina, have been installed.
All
dental supplies, additional dental equipment and the dentist salary
shall be paid out of the funds raised specifically for this
project. Our target is to provide 100 consultations per month for the
first year.
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