20th March 2011 By Louise Whitaker
Following Peros´ financial support for several communities affected by the floods back in January 2010, I have headed back out to Peru to volunteer to see how the communities are getting along- one year on.
First stop was the Desana Giving Dental Mission in Yanahuara. Mysmallhelp (to whom Peros had donated money for the flood victims) and Desana Giving worked together in 2010 to support the flood victims with food, educational materials, clothes, a dental mission and the development of small
businesses to help the communities get back on their feet.
Desana Giving, with the help of Mysmallhelp, had arranged a second dental mission in the nearby community of Yanahuara in the Sacred Vally in Peru. A team of 5 student dentists, led by Dr Michael Houk carried out over 650 treatments on over 150 people from the local community. Members of the community who we had helped over the last year were also able to attend and all procedures were free of charge.
Dental care is largely neglected in poor communities in Peru. Education on the importance of dental cleanliness is largely overlooked and it was shocking to see children as young as 5 having 5 or 6 teeth removed as a result of decay. My job was to help with the translation, to reassure the children and adults who were having procedures and to provide advice on the importance of regularly cleaning your teeth. There is no doubt that children have a sweet tooth here, children love to drink Inca Cola and Cocoa Cola but the results of this are really shocking. It was really brought home to me when I was speaking to the mother of one young girl who had just had 4 teeth out. I said that really she should limit fizzy drinks to one a week, because they contained lots of sugar which was bad for her daughter´s teeth. The mother looked completely shocked, like she had never made the link before. It was then that I realised Desana Giving and Mysmallhelp were doing great work in educating a small number of families, but that this was jus t a small drop in the ocean.
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