Our guide Patrick takes us to meet his family in Sipi Village.
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One of our "international" teams consisting of volunteers from the USA, Canada, Great Britain and Israel.
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Yekholam is the elder of Nabugoye and a subsistence farmer.
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keeps getting better All the Time
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Jon Golub is with Isaac Makidosi and 9 others at Mount Elgon, Mbale, Uganda.
October 31 at 9:28 AM · If you’ve ever been on a volunteer trip you’ll understand that each trip takes on a life of its own. While emergency care has to be a common goal of all trips, sometimes we are able to include and excel in other aspects of volunteer dentistry that by their nature, usually take a back seat to emergency treatment, such as patient education. Though less glamorous than extracting or fixing broken teeth, preventative patient care is just as important.
On our last trip to Uganda, our team of dentists each had about 30 years of experience and having been classmates in dental school (Eli Davidiyan, Jeff Brown and Jeff Harrison), no dentist was going to let his friend and former classmate work any harder than himself. And that trip was defined by the very large number of patients that we were able to take out of pain.
Coming into this years outreach program with two pediatric dentists, two dentists charged with mentoring two students, two dental hygienists and two general dentists, we knew this trip would not necessarily be about high numbers of patients being seen. And we were unsure how this trip would define itself?
But as of yesterday, this outreach has taken an interesting and promising turn. Dr. Morgan, who has an extensive background in volunteer trips in several countries in Africa and David Abramowitz, who leads our Dental Explorations team, met with Rabbi Gershon, who is a member of parliament, to discuss dental care in Uganda. They are hoping to work with both the local and national Dental Council and the Dental Ministry officials to establish a model for bringing dental care to the significantly underserved population of Uganda. In this country, most of the 200 dentists are located in the urban areas, leaving the rural areas like Mbale, underserved.
If David’s ties to the local “helpers” and his skills in putting together a well run clinic can be combined with Dr. Morgan’s experience in developing a dental program in Rwanda, it is possible with a bit of luck and a lot of hard work, that the collaboration could change the trajectory of dental health in rural Uganda.
But even on a smaller scale, Jamie and I are very happy that we have been able to bring David’s Dental Explorations group together with Tufts’ Global Outreach program. In fact, the two 3rd year Tufts students who are with us, Devonte and DL, have already committed to coming back to Uganda as student mentors. And with the help of additional students, Devonte and DL hope to establish a faster growing and more permanent relationship between Tufts and Uganda. This, in and of itself, is a major accomplishment.
October 31 at 9:28 AM · If you’ve ever been on a volunteer trip you’ll understand that each trip takes on a life of its own. While emergency care has to be a common goal of all trips, sometimes we are able to include and excel in other aspects of volunteer dentistry that by their nature, usually take a back seat to emergency treatment, such as patient education. Though less glamorous than extracting or fixing broken teeth, preventative patient care is just as important.
On our last trip to Uganda, our team of dentists each had about 30 years of experience and having been classmates in dental school (Eli Davidiyan, Jeff Brown and Jeff Harrison), no dentist was going to let his friend and former classmate work any harder than himself. And that trip was defined by the very large number of patients that we were able to take out of pain.
Coming into this years outreach program with two pediatric dentists, two dentists charged with mentoring two students, two dental hygienists and two general dentists, we knew this trip would not necessarily be about high numbers of patients being seen. And we were unsure how this trip would define itself?
But as of yesterday, this outreach has taken an interesting and promising turn. Dr. Morgan, who has an extensive background in volunteer trips in several countries in Africa and David Abramowitz, who leads our Dental Explorations team, met with Rabbi Gershon, who is a member of parliament, to discuss dental care in Uganda. They are hoping to work with both the local and national Dental Council and the Dental Ministry officials to establish a model for bringing dental care to the significantly underserved population of Uganda. In this country, most of the 200 dentists are located in the urban areas, leaving the rural areas like Mbale, underserved.
If David’s ties to the local “helpers” and his skills in putting together a well run clinic can be combined with Dr. Morgan’s experience in developing a dental program in Rwanda, it is possible with a bit of luck and a lot of hard work, that the collaboration could change the trajectory of dental health in rural Uganda.
But even on a smaller scale, Jamie and I are very happy that we have been able to bring David’s Dental Explorations group together with Tufts’ Global Outreach program. In fact, the two 3rd year Tufts students who are with us, Devonte and DL, have already committed to coming back to Uganda as student mentors. And with the help of additional students, Devonte and DL hope to establish a faster growing and more permanent relationship between Tufts and Uganda. This, in and of itself, is a major accomplishment.
Jon Golub is with Karen Spencer Brown and 9 others at Mbale City Center.
April 5 · Mbale, Uganda · Uganda Dental Blog Final Day: Now don’t misconstrue what I’m about to say- because- it’s not about the numbers; it never has been and it never will be. It’s rather about the people. But hearing from the Ugandan Dental Council that they were amazed at the number of patients that we treated made us feel good. Never before have they had so much work accomplished. And their meticulous records of patients seen will be used to ask the government for more support and aid for the people. It’s been a rewarding week and it’s over much too quickly - though most of our middle aged backs couldn’t take much more. We finished today at lunch with the afternoon devoted to equipment breakdown and repackaging of unused supplies. After lunch we went around the room and discussed the week. There was unanimous agreement that the success of this trip was primarily due to two factors: the local Ugandans who provided logistical support and manpower; and our leader, David, who tirelessly oversaw the planning, and provided a Midas like guidance, when wisdom was required. For my experienced dental volunteer friends, imagine a computer run, simple field X-ray unit. I know, you heard it a million times, it doesn’t fit our model...... The truth is that it was SIMPLE to use whether checking the fill on a RCT or helping to diagnose which tooth or teeth were responsible for a facial swelling. The point is David has covered all the bases in a way that is almost unimaginable. As we went around the room, everyone who participated, whether seasoned or new, agreed that the Ugandans are a wonderful people, who are deserving of our care. Everyone declared a desire to return on another volunteer trip. When asked what we could do better, there was little that we would change. We would perhaps increase the effort on prevention by creating a more comprehensive dental education program for the children, their teachers, and the parents. So we head back now to the hotel for a little R and R. Time to relax before Shabbat and dinner at the Rabbi’s house. Thanks for reading our blog. Hopefully it will be continued this fall if and when we return to this beautiful country. With our February 2018 mission just completed we now have conducted 11 trips to the Abayudaya community over the past 5 years. Group leader Dr. Vickie Sugarman and her team of all Canadian volunteers were so moved by what they termed, "this life changing experience", that they have already signed on for the October 2019 mission.
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Always a thrill experiencing the adventure and majesty of Sipi Falls
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Our mission in October 2016 brought many wonderful changes. The Community Center has been completed and we were able to utilize the new facility to set up our mobile, outreach clinic. We now have a spacious, well-organized, comfortable working environment to treat the community.
The July 2016 dental mission was a resounding success. Our mission volunteers worked non-stop in providing dental care that was once unimaginable in the remote rainforests of Uganda. We were blessed to have had two extraordinary clinicians accompany us from the faculty of the Tel Aviv University School of Dental Medicine. Dr. Guy Melamede, who heads the program of Oral Rehabilitation, and Dr. Alona Perlman, who heads the program of Pain Control and Morphology, provided advanced restorative dental care to patients, the majority of whom have never had any prior dental treatment. Dr. Jeff Goldsmith, from the University of North Carolina School of Dentistry, provided expert oral surgical services to a population suffering with chronic pain and non-restorable teeth. Dental assistants; Lily Schorr, Louise Carnaby, Daphne Rennert and Blair Goldsmith all worked tirelessly to ensure that all patients had a comfortable and positive experience.
"Dave, your itinerary is impressively succinct and accurate. You have done a really good job organizing a trip that pushes the volunteers out of their comfort zone but doesn’t completely exhaust them.
The trip was the most meaningful trip of my entire life besides my first trip to Israel.
You’re a real mensch and deserve the highest rewards from Hashem for your tzedakah. I can’t tell you how impressed I am with you and your work. This isn’t the last time you’ll hear from me."
Stay in touch my friend,
Jeff G
Witness the celebration of this 94 year old Muslim patient who is pain free for the first time in over 80 years!
"Dave, your itinerary is impressively succinct and accurate. You have done a really good job organizing a trip that pushes the volunteers out of their comfort zone but doesn’t completely exhaust them.
The trip was the most meaningful trip of my entire life besides my first trip to Israel.
You’re a real mensch and deserve the highest rewards from Hashem for your tzedakah. I can’t tell you how impressed I am with you and your work. This isn’t the last time you’ll hear from me."
Stay in touch my friend,
Jeff G
Witness the celebration of this 94 year old Muslim patient who is pain free for the first time in over 80 years!
We have just returned from our October, 2015 mission. One of the pleasures we experience is having a traditional Uganda lunch prepared for us by "Iron Chef", Rachel, in the Abayudaya Guesthouse. Volunteers are always welcome. We are in need of medical doctors, pediatricians, optometrists, audiologists, dentists, dental hygienists and dental assistants for our next missions in June - July (already filled) and Oct - Nov., 2016. You don't need to be in the medical professions to volunteer.
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"Iron Chef" Rachel in the kitchen at the Abayudaya Guesthouse.
_Our mission in March of 2015, set the gold standard for patient care. With the expertise of Dr. Robert Grunstein, who limits his practice to children, we were able to provide comprehensive dental services to over 200 students at the Hadassah Primary School in addition to an endless line of adults. The sophisticated services that Dr. Grunstein offered to the children, such as pulpotomies and stainless steel crowns, are exceedingly rare in the protocols of dental missions. Mission director, Dr. David Abramowitz, likewise shared with his Uganda colleagues his proficiency in modern endodontic techniques, utilizing the Tulsa Wave One endodontic system. To our knowledge this state of the art equipment is not in the armamentarium of many other missions involved in global dental outreach. The immediate benefit was that adult teeth, which under most field conditions would have been extracted, are now able to be saved. Dr. Ivan Ssejjoba, our full time clinical partner in our dental clinic at the Tobin Health Center and an exceptionally talented exodontist, is always available to follow up on all of our patient encounters.
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"An amazing, rewarding, once in a lifetime trip."..... Dr. Robert Grunstein
Read about Dr. Grunstein's and Kayla's experience in The Standard.