By Sandy Kemper | Founder & Director of Smiles Forever
Smiles Forever, doing our charity work in Bolivia, has already experienced the thrill of victory this summer. Winning the international Sunstar award for best dental hygiene project is the equivalent of achieving an Olympic Gold Medal!
Our Home Support Team: Thanking You!
Building our support team over the past 16 years has been the secret to success. Many of you have been with Smiles Forever from the beginning days in 2000. We had just linked with the Madre de Dios womens shelter to bring them dental care. It was then that we noticed how attentive some of the young women were to dental care methods. We opened the door to give them a full education in the dental hygiene profession.
As the years went by our mission expanded to serving other shelters, now 27 off-site clients. You were helping us add to the support team by spreading the word of the Smiles Forever work with indigenous people in Cochabamba and the surrounding area. You have encouraged us by participating in our events, sustained us with your generous gifts, and uplifted our students when we shared their stories of victory over neglect and poverty.
Our Home Team Backed Theodora & 7-Year Old Lydia who has a "Sweet Tooth" to get "Tooth Holes" Fixed
Story with a Happy Ending: Sweet 7-year-old Girl gets her "Tooth Holes" Fixed:
Lydia is a sweet little girl with a "sweet tooth." Lydia especially loves chocolate and would find a way to get candy at school.
Background: Theadora (age 59) and her daughter Lydia (age 7) live in a rural village called Montesillo outside Cochabamba, Bolivia. They receive social services and after school daycare through a project called Warmi.
Here is their story with a happy ending, told by Theadora, Lydia's mother:
"This is the first time I have taken my daughter to a dentist because I am a single mother and only make my living by selling Chicha (homemade liquor) to local bars. My daughter would cry about her teeth hurting, but I could only buy some medication at the store for her.
I am very excited for my daughter to see the dentist to fill all the holes in her teeth. Before my daughter would buy chocolate and candy at school. The bugs (bacteria) in her mouth were living off of the candy. Now she cannot buy candy and I make her brush her teeth.
I want to get my teeth worked on, too!
Update from Smiles Forever's Bolivian Dental Hygienist School's Outreach Program:
Currently, our Smiles Forever supported Bolivian Dental Hygienist school continues to strengthen and build upon our community clinic and rural outreach work. There are now 27 organizations, like the Warmi project which helped Lydia, that we visit both in Cochabamba and in surrounding rural areas. All these dental services can be provided free, thanks to the support from our GlobalGiving friends like you.
Since our beginnings in 2000, we have been looking for ways to help the under-served in an ever-widening area around our dental hygienist school for young indigenous woman. Many of our students, past and present, have come from the very shelters which we now go back and serve. To date Smiles Forever estimates we have given 30,000 free treatments in the local area. Our goal is to reach out to 10,000 more soon, particularly the vulnerable children, some who are crying from tooth decay pain like one of our newest patients, Lydia. She's promising us and her mother to avoid candy and to brush her teeth, because Lydia doesn't want to live with constant pain again.
Adele Helps a Teen-aged Girl at the Burn Clinic
As you can tell from the picture of Adele and her patient, there is a caring bond between them. This teenaged girl was severely burned--this happens way too often in a country where much of the population cooks on open fires. Someday there may be a next chapter in this girl's life. If things work out, and if there is financial backing for her, this burn survivor could come to our hygienist school. What a difference that educational opportunity would make--particularly because it may be hard for her to find a husband because of her scars.
Stories from Our Patients
We are now beginning the process of collecting stories from some of those thousands we see. Children like to share how excited they are to see us. Sometimes these children marvel at even handling a toothbrush. These are children who are not watching TV with commercials about every possible thing available in the modern world.
They take our little plastic mirrors and their toy animals and try to brush the teeth of the stuffed animals--emulating our treatment. These children are practicing what we preach! "What about me!" Everyone says because they all want to take part. Afterwards, they take their little mirrors and smile and look handsome or glamourous and exclaim, "Don't I look pretty (bonita)!"
Thank you for believing in the vision of Smiles Forever. We truly can all make a difference. Invite your friends or corporate sponsors to join our Bolivian gold medal team.
By Katie Fleming, RDH.BS and Lead 2nd-Year Instructor | Smiles Forever Board Member
By Sandy Kemper | Smiles Forever Founder & Director
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