In November of this last year, GVF Board Members Dr. Ralph Duffin, Linda Moreau and other dental field colleagues and friends traveled to Vietnam to provide immediate and emergency dental care to hundreds of children throughout the Danang and Ky La areas. 

Little did they know at the time that from that experience would grow Global Village Foundation’s Dental Health and Education Project or DHEP.

(For an inspiring and first hand account of Global Village Foundation's recent Dental Health team in Vietnam, CLICK HERE>>)

Inspired and concerned by his experience pulling the abscessed teeth of hundreds of village children, Dr. Duffin literally had a dream.  In his dream, he was in a sinking boat full of holes, and with only a tiny Vietnamese teacup, he was trying to bail the water out and keep it afloat.  Upon waking, he realized that he could never keep the boat afloat by trying to bail the water.  What he must do is build a whole new boat.

With that dream as inspiration, Dr. Duffin, and Linda Moreau, also of Oregon, have set out to create a program to build a new “boat of dental health” that will be capable of carrying hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese children to a place of better dental care and health.  That boat is called the Dental Health and Education Project.

The idea behind the project is simple: If you educate children at a young enough age to care for their teeth, then the amount of dental disease can be greatly reduced throughout their lives.  And even more than that, if you can apply some simple dental disease preventatives in a broad enough form, you can arrest disease before it begins, and control it if it’s already there. (e.g.: fluoride, silver nitrate, etc)

Phase 1 of the DHEP Program is creation of dental health education pamphlets, posters, comic books, etc, in Vietnamese, to be distributed via schools and clinics in areas where GVF is already presently working, primarily around Danang and Ky La.  Working with teachers, nurses and para-professionals, these educators will be trained through structured workshops led teams of dental professionals recruited from the US and elsewhere, in how to present dental hygiene concepts and practices to young children, including a basic  “how-to” regimen for teeth care from birth onward.  

Accompanying Phase 1 (and throughout all subsequent stages) will be additional visits by teams of U.S. and international dental professionals working in rural areas designated by GVF staff along with consultation with the Vietnamese.  These teams will do dental education work and provide emergency dental care in select areas on an as needed basis (and depending upon the dental specialty areas of those comprising the teams), working through the schools that GVF has already built or has established ties with through the Portable Library Projects and other previous and ongoing projects of GVF.

Phase1 1 will also include the initial planning of the Mother Love Dental Clinic (see Phase 2).

Phase 2 will include widening outreach and distribution of the educational materials and dental para-professional training programs through the schools, villages and clinics, along with “dental kits” of toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental “comic books”, DVDs, etc, to be distributed during presentations in the classrooms and villages the teachers will be giving. 

In addition, Phase 2 will see the completion of the building and outfitting of a fully equipped dental facility at the Mother Love Clinic in DaNang.  Vietnamese dentists, in addition to periodic long-term guest dentists and dental professionals from the U.S. and other countries like Singapore, Australia, Japan, etc, will staff the facility.  To house and facilitate the work of these guests, a simple housing facility will be built near the clinic adequate for guest stays of two weeks to several months.

As fundraising and resources allow, Phase 2 will widen its outreach to more and more schools, clinics and villages, utilizing “synergistically” the Portable Library Project teachers and training workshops already taking place, to present the dental hygiene training to a group of professionals already accustomed to working with this type of village education program.  Also, the new DHEP print and AV materials will be made available in the widening outreach of the Portable Libraries Project that will be furthering its outreach during the same time. (See Portable Libraries Project Description attached.)

Phase 2 will also include the production of a multilingual DVD illustrating the basic hygiene concepts to be demonstrated by the teachers.  In addition to securing donations of inexpensive DVD players, these DVDs will be distributed at key school and clinics throughout the initial target areas.  In addition, we are discussing publication of a children’s book on these dental practices that can be “de facto” included in the PLP libraries distributed, gaining more exposure, and reinforcing the presentations the children will have already received.

Phase 3 will include the acquiring of a specific set of dental disease preventatives like fluoride, silver nitrate, etc, either purchased in Asia or Vietnam, or else shipped from the US, and the training for their use and application through the teachers, nurses and para-professionals already trained in Phase 1 and 2 of the DHEP Project, in adequate and ongoing quantities to administer effectively in areas already reached by DHEP.  Again, this will initially be developed in areas where relationships have already been previously developed through Phases 1 and 2 of the project.

Phase 3 will also see the acquisition and outfitting of at least one Mobile Dental Van, equipped with dental chair and equipment, self-supported by onboard generators and air pumps, allowing for its use in even the most remote areas of Vietnam.   GVF will work in conjunction by the Vietnamese to determine the best means to staff and circulate this mobile unit.  Phase 3 will also see the systematic countrywide implementation of Phases 1 & 2, along with the completion of Mother Love Dental Clinic and staffing.

Phases 1, 2 & 3 are designed to allow for flexible expansion of the DHEP initiative as additional funding and dental resources and international volunteers become available.  By targeting areas of Vietnam where GVF already has established schools and working relationships, the structural support for the initial implementation of the project is already in place.  Using the lessons learned in developing DHEP in these established areas, and by working in close conjunction with the already launched Portable Libraries Project in other areas, GVF will be able to quickly expand the training, education and outreach of DHEP into other areas throughout Vietnam as funding and program resources allow.

Funding for the DHEP Project will be developed through these primary sources:

Private donations through the dental professional community: These donations will be solicited through targeted “comp” ads in dental office and other professional dental publications that will solicit donor equivalents of “one filling a month for the children”,  establishing a “pledge program” for the cost of one filling per month from dental offices throughout the U.S.   This will be facilitated through Dr. Duffin’s extensive and well-placed contacts throughout the higher levels of the dental professional community, and through an online donation system designed specifically towards that community.

Major corporate donors of dental products:  This includes toothpaste, floss, brush manufacturers, etc, as well as dental equipment manufacturers and offices for “donations in kind”.  These will include the obvious, like Crest, Palmolive, etc, as well as others with a vested “interest” in dental disease, such as Coca Cola, candy manufacturers, etc.  In the case of the Dental Products group, it is hoped these will come as “in-kind” donations of products, with some financial assistance.  In the case of Coca Cola, etc, we would expect a more direct financial donation.

International Grant Funding sources:   Large scale funders who are capable of providing funding for substantial aspects of program implementation, such as printing of the educational materials, equipping of the van or clinic, etc.  Or for umbrella funding of workshop implementation, such as The International Foundation’s support of the Portable Library Project workshops. In this funding group are also other philanthropic agencies, Foundations or individuals interested in Asian and particularly Vietnamese healthcare and development issues, and innovative approaches to solving them.