Help Dental Hygiene Students Make Bolivia Smile!

     These are exciting times at the Dental Hygiene Clinic in Cochabamba with our students all passing their final practical exams, with our community project serving 300 children in Morochata becoming a reality, and with our new preparations underway to work with the children from the Viedma Burn Center for Children in Cochabama.

     For the past month Smiles Forever students have been completing their final practical exams in Dental Hygiene.  All students have passed with flying colors.  As director, I have seen a noticeable change in self-confidence in these young women in the last few weeks I have been working with them.  All students are currently employed or putting together resumes for employment.

    We are particularly proud of Gobanna Dorado, seen here in the photo with a patient in our fee for service clinic.  Prior to being in the program, Gobanna was working in Cochabamba's public market selling vegetables.  Now Gobanna will be working in the mornings aiding the professor at the Smiles Forever teaching Clinic that serves over 6,000.  In the afternoon, Gobanna will work in private practice.

    Before graduation students and staff will visit Morochata for our community service project.  We will provide preventative care to 300 school children and prepare them for restorative treatment with dentists and hygienists from the U.S. and from the Smiles Forever Dental Team here.

   Preparations continue for adding the Viedma Burn Center for Children in Cochabamba to benefit our community in a special way. 

  The lives of all our students have changed so dramatically, and our patients having access to dental care has made such a difference in their lives, too.

        Sincere warm greetings from Bolivia, Sandy Kemper Founder & Director of Smiles Forever

Smiles Forever Founder, Sandy Kemper, who was motivated over 10 years ago to do something for the indigenous homeless Bolivian women, is excited to be once again back at the dental hygienist school.  She's sharing her enthusiasm with each and every student, and naturally also sharing her expertise from being years in the dental hygiene field herself.

What makes this a special time for Sandy is that she is reunited with her family, including her incredibly cute adopted three-year-old son.  This brave little fellow has nearly finished a series of surgeries to correct cleft palate.  One of the outreach programs of this Bolivian project is to educate women about vitamin deficiencies that may cause birth defects.  A goal of the project has always been to use education to improve healthcare and family stability in the extended community of Cochibamba, Bolivia.