In 2008 Barbara Koffman led 2 groups of dental volunteers in February and September. Their main purpose was to carry out basic dentistry in a number of temporary clinics at various locations.
Extract from Barbara’s diary for September 9th
“For many of the team it is their first time in Uganda. To arrive at the village and to be greeted with large crowds can be a bit daunting. This team take it all in their stride and quickly we are all off loading the equipment and setting up our clinic. We have 3 sections. Triage, which acts as a filter system, some people just come to look at the Muzungu, the actual clinic where all the procedures will take place, and post op where people will sit and rest after their extraction. We are very careful to make sure everyone is feeling well before we send them off on their way. Some people will have walked many miles to have this dental treatment. As soon as the first patient has been screened then we can begin. Terry and his family have been with us on these dental clinics now for the past 4 times so they know their roles. Crowd control is a big issue. Terry has a very good system and the flow of human traffic is under control. Joseph the Ugandan is working next to Nick and Mark so that if there are any clinical issues he can get help. Very quickly it becomes obvious that the UK equipment is so alien to him that he is misusing it. This is one of the main reasons my UK contact asked if he could join our team. He is very receptive to further training. Mark and Nick are very good communicators, so Joseph will gain a great deal from this session. As usual the number of people waiting is somewhat over whelming, but I reassure my team that we can only do what we can do. Inevitably there will be people that we have to turn away. As part of our remit this time we are “Road Testing“2 folding dental chairs that Dentaid have designed. Sadly one of them was damaged in transit but it is still usable. So the 3 dentists are being very critical as to how the design can be modified for better use in Uganda. We work until around 1p.m. when we are told that lunch is ready. We are going to eat local food which will be rice, and beans and cabbage with a few pieces of meat. The cost of this meal is taken from the donated monies in the dental fund. In order to facilitate one of these trips there needs to be around £2,000. Cost for interpreters, transport, dental drugs, sundries, Ugandan clinicians, and fuel all these go together to make one of these trips possible. After lunch we start work again…”
February
Barbara commented, “This was a very successful trip measured by the amount of patients treated and there being no clinical traumas or problems, and no post operative traumas. There was a follow up visit to the clinics one week later and all the reports were good. All team members interacted well both with UK and Ugandan staff. It is hoped that a long term working relationship will be established in this way. Allocated funding was sufficient to facilitate the trip, which was approximately £2,000. This covered the cost of transport, drugs, interpreters, expenses for Ugandan qualified staff, food for the whole team, and laundry. The people of Uganda gave their thanks to the UK volunteers for providing this much needed outreach mission.”
Hygenist Shirley’s account of  a helping at a clinic:
“Tuesday 19th Feb The day started earlyish and at 0800 we were busy loading all the dental supplies on to our minibus. First stop was Terry’s house where we immediately unpacked our bus so that we could put it all on to a different one. Terry, a pastor from the USA, gave us a quick briefing and then we were off. I was a little bit surprised at how many people were involved – drivers, interpreters, and two Ugandan public health workers who are able to take teeth out. That was in addition to us and the Nester family. The journey to Bulega took about an hour along several dirt roads and we finally set up clinic at a village school. There was, of course, no running water or any of the other niceties associated with a UK practise. We had 150 customers which we somehow or another managed to get through by 1700. I was in post op with Natalie and our interpreter was Richard. We generally looked after everyone who had had an extraction, gave them a dose of antibiotics and painkillers, handed out toothbrushes and toothpaste and kept Richard busy interpreting post extraction instructions.”