The Western Cape has the highest levels of tooth decay in South Africa. 70% of 6 year-olds have at least one decayed tooth with the severity of the disease increasing with age. This impacts severely on their quality of life and many are unable to afford or access treatment. In rural areas, in particular, many families are unable to access dental services for their children, due to cost and distance constraints.
As part of our inaugural project the Dental Wellness Foundation helped raise funds for the purchase of a mobile dental van to be able to provide dentistry for those in need. This vehicle has helped to assist very many children in hard to reach communities, over very many years ……and still continues today, to play an important part in our Outreaches.
During the global pandemic our Toothbrushing Mamas set up 12 soup kitchens in the townships of Mfuleni and Khayelitsha to serve food to the children.
In some areas the need to feed children remains and as a result 4 of our soup kitchens remain. Whilst we receive donations from SA Harvest, we still require more food supplies. Dental Wellness Foundation would greatly appreciate your contributions to enable the continuation of these wonderful soup kitchens.
Our LiveSmart project is based on the Fit for School Programme which has been very successful in the Philippines. The Dental Wellness Foundation has taken two aspects of Fit for Life and successfully applied it in South Africa – i) brushing teeth and ii) washing hands.
The innovative toothbrushing programme called LiveSmart has been reaching the children of the townships since 2012 and is run by our Toothbrushing Mamas.
Our Toothbrush Mamas teach the children how to brush their teeth, wash their hands, and basic life skills. Over 30,000 children attend daily to brush their teeth and wash their hands with clean water, something which we can take for granted. Each year the Dental Wellness Foundation holds a graduation ceremony to congratulate the children for all their hard work and effort.
The “Mamas” attend annual training to keep up to date with Personal Protective Equipment training and with innovations in the programme.
Every year the dental Wellness Foundation welcomes dentists from the world to help provide dental treatment to the teachers and children.
The Charity has been very fortunate to have had research studies and fundings from DMG Germany and the results have been presented IADR.
Our Mamas who are cooking food to serve to the children use a special bag called a Wonderbag. Not only does it help transport the heavy large pots but it also keeps the food warm.
Wonderbag is a simple but revolutionary non-electric, portable slow cooker. Wonderbag’s clever insulation allows food that has been brought to the boil to continue slow cooking or warm while in the bag. No plugs. No Fuss. No electricity required, so it’s worry-free.
During our week volunteering in the Township, we did dental screening for 85 volunteers and visited 18 Educare schools in Mfuleni. The schools varied in size: Some of them were converted homes catering for up to 15 children. Others were huge, with over 100 children divided into different classrooms.
In Mfuleni the predominant language is Xhosa, with over 50,000 people living in the Township. In the Cape Flats, unemployment, crime & social cohesion are the main issues affecting residents, who were forced to live in neighbourhoods according to their ethnicity during Apartheid. We delivered hundreds of toothbrushes and thousands of tubes of toothpaste on behalf of the charity to be distributed amongst the schoolchildren and volunteers.
It was remarkable to see the positive effects the programme was having on the children and teachers alike, with the vast majority of adults we screened having never visited a dentist before in their life. Access to dentistry was limited, with the nearby township of Khayelitsha only having two dentists serving a population of over 1,000,000 people! Many had carious lesions extending into their pulp tissue, and periodontal disease was rife. The oral health of the region was only worsened by the high availability of sugary fizzy drinks and processed foods, which alongside a lack of awareness about diet exacerbates the high prevalence of caries.
At the end of our voluntary work, we celebrated with the Mamas and received an education in Xhosa pop music as well as gospel classics. Reality dawned on all of us – we would soon be leaving Cape Town and returning to work, studying, or both. I, for one, could undeniably have stayed to explore more of South Africa for another few weeks, but time flies when you’re having fun (plus I’d already booked my return flight). Altogether, the experience was eye-opening, overwhelming and I miss it already.
