A drop of dentistry in the jungle

As part of the Refugee Crisis Foundation, a group of young healthcare professionals wanting to make a difference, Salman Sheikh, Obaid Khalid and Yousuf Bashir spent a weekend providing dental aid to those in need.

The group experienced varying conditions at the two refugee camps, and had to adapt their techniques to the different environments. They were met with a hugely diverse group of people and language barriers provided another challenge with Arabic, Urdu, Pashrun, Farsi, Kurdish, English and more being spoken throughout. But with the professionalism and teamwork skills learnt at King’s College London, the students were able to assist with providing emergency dental aid to a significant number of refugees.

The students put together an emotional and eye opening account of their weekend across the Channel and this has been published on the British Dental Journal website. Their tale brings the reality of the refugee camps to life. They describe the state of the refugees’ situation in an honest and accurate way. The group has since returned to the camps to provide more aid with the Refugee Crisis Foundation, and hopes to inspire others to help out too.  On February 19-21,they took a larger team from KCL Dental Institute to join a team of 60 healthcare professionals from RCF working in the camps and supply warehouses again. The team included Robin Amanullah (clinical tutor for Palace and Monument) as well as Salman Sheikh, Obaid Khalid, Yousuf Bashir, Kasim Pervaiz, Junaid Mirza, Fahad Sheikh and Awais Ali. They are hoping to make another trip either to Greece or Calais soon.