The UK’s leading dental training charity celebrates its 15th anniversary
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- Published: Friday, 12 April 2019 09:48
- Written by News Editor
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Many charities start life around a kitchen table. The spark comes from a couple of ordinary people seeing what they want to change in the world and working out how they can do it.
Fifteen years ago, Ian and Andi Wilson met and fell in love while volunteering in Tanzania. Ian was using his skills as a dentist and Andi was working at an orphanage. They talked about how they could use their skills and networks to help people in the country that they were visiting. These conversations were the genesis of Bridge2Aid and 2019 is the 15th anniversary of the charity.
The core of Bridge2Aid is skill sharing; volunteer UK dentists teach rural health workers how to carry out very basic emergency dental work – primarily extractions. And the results are impressive; in its 15 years, Bridge2Aid has given over 550 health workers emergency dental training. During training they have also provided free dental treatment to over 50,000 people.
Still small (with only 5 full-time equivalent staff members), it is a very personal affair and there is a real family feeling. But despite being small, a great deal of knowledge and expertise has been amassed. The size of the charity also means it provides good value for money, with over 85p in every £1 being spent on their charitable work.
It is only because of the support of the UK dental community that Bridge2Aid has been able to achieve such success. Your help is still needed to keep this dream alive, so please consider making 2019 the year that you join the Bridge2Aid family.
There are always exciting ways to get involved with the charity and you can stay current on Facebook at @Bridge2Aid or at www.bridge2aid.org.
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