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Service Reports from Around the World

The service done by members of our academy has been growing exponentially. Those who attended our annual conference in August recognized the different thrust of our foreign service efforts. Through the years quite a few have had the opportunity to go with their families and/or staff to our project in Mexico to do the dental work on children in four orphanages. We have sponsored that as well as other projects abroad in an attempt to give service to needy recipients and also to facilitate great experiences for our members.

Many others have gone with the humanitarian service organizations that we have listed in our newsletters and have had tremendous experiences sharing their professional skills via these projects. Countless others, both in and out of our academy, have done dental services in many Third World countries with other groups and on their own. We acknowledge and are pleased to associate with such charitable professionals. If any of you didn't attend our conference and therefore didn't receive the service packet we gave out with the registration materials, please call Steve Trost, and he will send you a copy. Please use it to select the right project for you.

We would like to share a few of the services which have occurred since our last conference. (Regretfully, there are many which we don't have room enough to include.) A group of five dentists and four staff members was led by D. Terry Morris to work on children in three cities in Brazil (sponsored by FUNDAMED). Twenty-five expressed interest to go on future trips to Brazil in June and to the Dominican Republic, possibly in April. Dr. Brent Lee, from Pocatello, went with his wife and daughter for another year to La Paz, Bolivia, to teach oral surgery techniques at a dental school (a project sponsored by Deseret International). Dr. Richard Smith (one of the directors of AYUDA) went with his son, also a dentist, to Siberia to do dental work and to set up contacts there for a future project. They are also planning to have an expedition in May to some villages in Peru. Dr. Jerry Summerhays and now Dr. Rick Meyers (with the help of Drs. John Bevan and Richard Christensen) have done much to continue the preparation for the Dental School Project in Lima, Peru. Surely this will prove to be a prototype of many other joint ventures with LDS Charities. Dr. Kimel Fisher has recently completed his 15th service expedition with MEDICO (a group out of Texas). He has consented to help with the equipment mentioned below. CHOICE has had many of our members join their expeditions to extend dental services to villages where other types of services were already scheduled. Many more such expeditions are available. Dr. Roy Hammond, besides continuing to successfully lead his staff and others on his own and joint projects around the world, has conducted two evening sessions on Bush Dentistry (techniques and how to be involved). We intend to make available on our Web page the great reports of many of these groups so you can become familiar with the details of their experiences and to help you prepare to share your skills on some future expeditions. The main limiting factor in having more of our members join with these already well-established humanitarian groups is the lack of good portable dental delivery units. With the help of Rotary International and Adec equipment suppliers, we are purchasing many portable Adec units to help facilitate these expeditions and projects.

At next year's annual conference we will have numerous dental service experiences shared to once again engender enthusiasm and know-how in continuing this great work.

May you be blessed in your efforts and involvement.

John Gerritsen