February, 2012 Trip

16 volunteers from Rural Rwanda Dental (www.rrdental.org) and Adopt an Africa Clinic (www.adoptanafricanclinic.org) taught, screened, and treated people in 5 rural areas of Rwanda from February 6 – 16, 2012.  We also assessed the state of oral health in those areas and presented our findings to Rwanda’s Ministry of Health and the Clinton Health Access Initiative to help them determine Rwanda’s future oral health policy. 

Some of us saw over 1600 children ages 6-15 in both private and public schools and found:

1.   A direct relationship between teacher and

      administration involvement and willingness of children to learn

2.   No correlation between private or public schools and level of

      awareness of oral health

3.   Lower than expected rate of decay

4.   Unexpected cases of early gum disease

Our team provided consumable preventive products from 12 manufactures and 11 in kind donations worth an estimated $5000.00.  These supplies were donated to 5 hospital dental clinics in rural Rwanda

The plans and decisions made by the Ministry of Health will impact Rural Rwanda Dental’s future mission statement and work.