• Recent

• News Archive

• Newsletters

Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Index

Many Opportunities for Service

Renew your passports, get your shots, brush up on your Spanish, and get ready for new humanitarian service opportunities with the LDS Academy of Dentists. Since the academy's inception, volunteer dental service has been one of our stated purposes. We have had some significant successes and some sobering disappointments, but we have learned from all these experiences. We are entering a new era where more opportunities are becoming available. More efficient and effective delivery systems are being established, and better coordination with Church programs is developing.

We are optimistic that in the next year many new opportunities will be present, so academy members will have a wide range of options to fit their time and budget requirements. At the moment we have more volunteers than established sites available for service. We are working to change the ratio. Of course, we continue to have great success with the orphanage projects in Guadalajara and elsewhere. choice and Deseret International need dental volunteers for their many wide-ranging activities, but at times you may be placed on a waiting list. In the development stage, we are working to establish sites in Mexico, where clinics can be in place and maintained by dependable local people. This will allow volunteers to come in and serve for varying periods without the worry and anxiety of bringing equipment.

Beehive International based in Carlsbad, New Mexico, has acquired a semi-truck dental van, which they are now refurbishing and will soon have operational to take dental service to remote sites throughout Chihuahua State in northern Mexico. They are going to need many dentists and staff to volunteer to work with this van. Beehive has been very effective in working with and gaining the support and cooperation of local Mexican government agencies-- something we have struggled with in the past.

Used dental equipment in good operating condition is still being sought, along with surplus supplies. Beehive has worked out an efficient way to handle such donations in cooperation with the Church's Humanitarian Services Department.

Great satisfaction can result from volunteering your time and resources in humanitarian dental service projects. Keep in touch with the academy officers so that we might help you coordinate a project suitable for you.

Richard E. Reiser
63 West 165 South
Orem, Utah 84058
225-0268

Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Index