May 2009

HUMANITARIAN OUTREACH PROGRAM

Children of Cambodia

The Humanitarian Outreach Program has been an ongoing project of the International College of Dentists USA Section for several years. The original goal of this program was to establish Dental Public Health training programs in Southeast Asia. In recent years the program has expanded. We have joined with ICD volunteer Fellows and the Presbyterian Church of the Dakotas to build a dental facility and provide services to 500,000 Kenyan natives who had been without dental care. In Tanzania, we joined with The American Dental Association and Health Volunteers Overseas to purchase and install two full operatories in a hospital and provide small diagnoses and treatment clinics in refugee camps.

The ADA has generously provided a link to the four-page, full-color January 2009 Update, "Teaching Dental Health in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam". At the top of the first page of this informative update, there is a photo of Vietnamese graduates of the Third Training Course in Dental Public Health, with the caption, "Programs Sponsored by the International College of Dentists USA Section Since 1999" superimposed over the photo. The file is large, so please be patient as it downloads: http://www.ada.org/ada/international/volunteer/Update_2009.pdf

Last month we mailed all USA Section Fellows an appeal to continue supporting our humanitarian outreach projects. We depend on our Fellows to assist with the funding of these worthy projects through tax-deductible donations to our USA Section Foundation. If you responded to our recent mailing, thank you. Thank you also for all of your past generous support which has provided dental training and dental care to so many needy people in Asia and Africa. If we have not yet heard from you this year, or in other years, we look forward to receiving your support to so we can continue to serve these poor communities.

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