Dental services in Timor Leste, which lies in the Indian Ocean, were affected by the country’s bitter civil war with Indonesia and many people were suffering as they could not access dental care due to a shortage of dentists.
Rotary provided a £35,000 grant to facilitate the training of dental students at the University of Dili’s dental school. It was the first course of its kind ever to be run in Timor Leste. The money also funded seven DentaidBoxes – portable dental surgeries that can be operated without access to running water or electricity.
Now, two years after the initial grant, the first dental assistants are preparing to graduate and are already volunteering their time to serve their communities in dental clinics. Working alongside qualified dentists, the trainees are gaining valuable clinical experience and expect to go straight into employment when they graduate in August.
Three further graduates are hoping to work alongside Ross Brandon from Cooperativo Café Timor (CCT). CCT is a fair trade co-operative of coffee farmers established in 2000, which now has 19,600 members. The cooperative has a medical centre but, until now, has not had enough dentists and therapists to offer dental care.
Cooperativo Café Timor will also benefit from the DentaidBoxes which include a portable dental chair and everything required to establish a dental clinic in remote locations. Portuguese dentist Avelino Carvalho will mentor and oversee the work of two graduates who will be employed by CCT and use the Rotary funded equipment.
The Rotary funding will also allow a donation to be made to the Bairo Pite Clinic in the capital Dili where dental services are very stretched. The money will provide additional equipment in order to improve care.
Dentaid volunteer Simon Crewe recently went to Timor Leste to visit the trainees and see how the money was ensuring a new generation of dental professionals could treat people in their communities.
“As a charity that has a huge range of projects all over the world, the sustainability of our work is extremely important,” said strategic director of Dentaid, Andrew Evans. “Training has always been one of Dentaid’s key areas of work and we are delighted that people in Timor Leste will benefit from more dental assistants and therapists as a result of this project.”
Sandy Dunn from the Rotary Club of Romsey Test said: "Before this project there were only four dentists to look after a population of over 1m and all of the dentists were based in the island's capital, Dili. A team of UK volunteer dentists spent two weeks providing practical training for 20 student dental clinicians who were training at the island’s only university. They are now completing their training and will ensure that a sustainable dental healthcare team will benefit the people of Timor Leste. The project also delivered seven mobile surgeries which will enable this new generation of dentists to operate in remote areas and bring pain relieving dentistry to areas of the island where people previously had no access to dental care.”