Bridge2Aid empowers health workers who are already established and well respected members of rural communities. The NGO provides them with skills, experience and equipment to help those in need. In Tanzania, at least 11 regions have been covered; they include Mwanza, Kagera and Mara.
Others are Dodoma, Shinyanga, Geita, Dodoma, Manyara, Morogoro, Lindi and Coast region. Mr Topley told the ‘Daily News’ that trainings are carried out by volunteer dentists and dental nurses who spend approximately two weeks in the country with Bridge2Aid participating in a Dental Volunteer Programme. He added that there are big dental related problems in all regions in the country, and that there is a need of continuing with training for health workers across the country.
According to Mr Topley, Bridge2Aid decided to focus on dental related problems because it is an area that has been overlooked by many governments all over the world. He said the organisation is currently focusing on rural areas since most of the people are incapable of travelling to urban areas to access dental services. He said many people suffer from dental related pains and that the NGO’s programmes helps to bring relief to victims who mostly come from poor families.
Three quarters of the world’s population has no access to the most simple dental pain relief, leaving billions to face a daily battle with pain in the toughest of life circumstances. “Bridge2Aid believes the impact of untreated caries on people’s lives is huge and demands attention.
There is a simple, affordable and effective way to make access to pain relief possible, train rural health workers to safely extract infected teeth and relieve pain,” he said. He said 98 per cent of dental related problems can be treated and 94 per cent of patients recover from dental related problems.
According to Mr Topley, with proper programmes and trained health workers across the country, majority of Tanzanians could get rid of dental related pains. He said so far 38,000 people have been treated, 420 health workers have been trained and 75 training programmes have been conducted in the country. “Our focus is on offering training and providing knowledge on how to prevent the problem.
We are also treating those who are already affected,” he said. Since 2004, 3.1 million people in East Africa have been given access to safe emergency dental care because of Bridge2Aid’s training programmes.
According to the 2014 World Dental Federation report, almost 100 percent of adults and 60-90 percent of schoolchildren worldwide suffer from dental caries. Also, 30 percent of adults aged 65-74 years have lost all their natural teeth
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