Dental Project in in Mijale this June

The Dental Project is planned for June 12th to 16th and will be visiting the remote CRESS clinic in Mijale, Northern Uganda.

Before a project such as the visit of dentists funded by Dentaid, there has to be a period of what is locally termed “mobilisation”. This means holding a a meeting in Mijale and a second meeting in Matu. Led by Edward Mika head of the Mijale Clinic and his medical team in his words …

“they will target to meet the stake holders including the Local Community Leaders , Church Leaders, teachers and other key community members. After the meeting the mobilisers together with stake holders will be visiting Churches in different villages during Sunday prayers. Plus they will be visiting  schools around Mijale. Taking place before and during the four day operation. The villages that would be visited include: Clargy, Osubira, Matu, Pasiki, Kerwa and many others to achieve a good attendance.”

Caroline Lamb, CRESS Founder and CEO asked Angel Nsubuga the Lead Ugandan Dentist how they can even be sure the refugees from the camps will come to access treatment. He wrote back …

“When conducting an outreach, you work on everybody irrespective of where one comes from. Where the CRESS clinic is there are so many people many, many refugees from South Sudan and the indiginous of the area who have a lot of dental problems.  Entering a UNCHR Refugee camp involves a lot of process involving the office of the Prime Minister and UNHCR, but we can just mobilize ,thru local leaders, churches and may be work from churches near the camps. With that people can move freely from the camps and come out for the services where they are.

We can still work from Mijale and just mobilize the people meaning if they are aware of the time the period the services will available they will turn up in big number.

Mobilization is the key to any outreach, poor mobilization means low turn up but if we involve local leaders, church leaders, camp leaders, and some announcements on local media stations ,then it will be very successful because even people from far will easily be aware and prepare themselves to come by walking long distances for treatments.”

With these excellent local relationships between CRESS partners and the local community the maximum number of people look like being reached with pain relieving dental treatment.

Caroline Lamb
CRESS Founder and CEO