KNYSNA NEWS - The Rotary Club of Knysna's humanitarian project, RotaryDent, is a collaboration involving the Rotary Club of Knysna, the Rotary Club of Dundee in KZN, the US-based charity Medicine Arm-in-Arm, the Western Cape Department of Health and the Western Cape Department of Education.
It facilitates dental treatment for children in need.
During Rotary 2023, which took place last April, learners from six Knysna schools who had been identified as needing dental work were given treatment during one week when a number of dentists and their assistants from the USA and Finland worked together with the local dental team from the Department of Health at a treatment centre set up at the Knysna Provincial Hospital.
Three primary schools and three high schools were involved, namely, Hornlee Primary, Knysna Sekonder, Concordia Primary, Concordia High, Chris Nissen Primary and Percy Mdala High.
The number of potential patients identified was more than the team could handle, which left a backlog of learners that did not receive treatment.
The Western Cape Department of Health kindly offered for Dr Dillon Manuel, Principal Dentist Knysna/Bitou Subdistrict and Dr Julien Joubert, along with oral hygienist Nonstikilelo Khau, and dental assistants Filicity Holtzhauzen and Siya Sishuba, to put aside their normal clinic duties for the month of May 2024 and devote their time to treating the backlog at the Concordia Clinic dental facility.
Knysna Rotarians assisted by liaising with the schools, arranging for the transport of the learners from their schools to the clinic and back, seeing to the administrative functions and providing adult support and entertainment to the learners while they waited before and after treatment.
The programme has been successful in that over 600 dental procedures were performed.
The backlog has thus been cleared, leaving a clean slate for the consideration of other schools for RotaryDent 2025, planned for March next year in Knysna.
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