Making a sustainable difference in East Africa - B2A & Dentistry Show

The majority of the world’s population has no access to oral pain relief. This means people can suffer agonising pain for years, from dental problems that can be quickly and easily treated in the western world.

Since 2002, Bridge2Aid has been working hard to remedy this, increasing sustainable access to emergency dental care throughout East Africa. Through its carefully designed volunteer programmes, it provides the opportunity for UK professionals to visit some of the poorest areas of the developing world. There they can not only deliver the safe and effective treatment needed by thousands of people, but they also help to train local health care workers so that they can sustain the provision of dental care in the long-term.

In order to continue its inspirational work however, the charity relies on the generous donations of time, money and resources from the UK dental profession.

Shaenna Loughnane, Operations Manager at Bridge2Aid, says:

“The start of the year was tough for us and we were so grateful to the profession for showing their support. We are through the worst of it now and we would like to thank everyone who came to our aid!  

“Our main aim for the next year is to help more people understand what we do and to show the impact our training programmes have on communities in rural areas of East Africa. We offer a sustainable, ethical and appropriate response to the fact that 70% of the world has NO access to oral pain relief – and the 30% with access are only in the cities, whereas the huge majority of people live in rural areas. The charity has big plans for this year and next, we just need to raise the funds to be able to achieve them!

“On 4th October 2014 we are celebrating 10 years of our dental volunteer programme. We are running a ‘Birthday Bash’ at Wembley Stadium to celebrate, and all our friends, family, volunteers, donors and fundraisers are invited. More details are available on our website: www.bridge2aid.org/birthdaybash.”

The dedicated Bridge2Aid team will be attending The Dentistry Show 2015 to raise awareness of the situation in East Africa to show more industry professionals what they do.

“The Dentistry Show has given us free space for the last few years,” continues Shaenna. “We have always found it to be a fantastic Show and it certainly seems to be getting busier each year. It seems to have got the mix of exhibition time and CPD just right, and we welcomed a good number of dental professionals to our unique volunteer programme during the 2014 event. The Sea of pink was also a fantastic success for us – in the end, 30 exhibitors took part and it was amazing to see the support in the room.

“As we are always looking to raise our profile and promote the ever-growing need for dental equipment, products and training in East Africa and other developing regions of the world, we are looking forward to The Dentistry Show 2015. It will present the perfect opportunity for people to visit our stand and develop their understanding of what we do – we hope to see you there!”

For more information about Bridge2Aid and its volunteer programmes, visit www.bridge2aid.org. Or you can visit the team at The Dentistry Show 2015 on Friday 17^th and Saturday 18^th April 2015, at the NEC in Birmingham. For further details please visit www.thedentistryshow.co.uk, call 020 7348 5269 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.