Another good day, we screened 680 kids, and treated 343, gifts of toothbrush and school supplies provided to all 1,112 students at this elementary school, and 147 gifts to teachers and villagers who attended the dental health education session.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Day 6 - Thursday, February 28, 2013 SECOND CLINIC DAY - CAI LAY District, THANH LOC Elementary School
After a first clinic day like yesterday, we are all charged up for
today. We reach Thanh Loc Elementary school after a long 1hr.20mn.
drive from our hotel in My Tho. We are pleased to see the students
lined up in the school playground, it shows that the school
administrative and teachers do care about the dental health of their
pupils, that is a very good sign.
Every school we go to has over a thousand student population, when the
principal, his office, and all of the teachers are prepared for our
arrival, we can be more efficient and able to serve more of the kids in a
day.
We use whatever school tables and chairs to set up the clinic and start right to work.
We set up a waiting area in the middle of our classroom-dental clinic
so the children can play with LEGO pieces, puzzles, and coloring books
while they are waiting for their turn, they get lost in play and not
worry about the dental treatment.
Lunch time usually happens after 1pm, our cook does an excellent job at
preparing a sumptuous vegetarian and a non-vegetarian feast to please
everyone. Friends who work hard together have a lot of fun eating
together!
When Dr. Hue is not giving dental health education and screening the
children in their classrooms or in the courtyard, she would jump in,
find a little space in our crowded make shift clinic, a space at a
table, pull up a little chair, make up an instant fluoride station and
get the kids taken care of, one after another.
Almost every child we see from kindergarten up to 5th grade have some
degree of dental decay, many suffered from dental pain. I develop these
dental health education sessions in an attempt to empower parents with
children under 5 with the knowledge of how easy and simple it is to
prevent decay, something every parent can do in their home each
evening. Dental treatment without dental health education is like going
two step backward for every step forward. Dental disease prevention
has to be an important aspect of a serious long term dental relief
program. We can't just taking badly decayed teeth out all day long
without sharing the knowledge of how to prevent this sad situation to
begin with.
Don't you love that cap? Don't think they know what FBI really means,
don't know where she obtains it, or how long she owns that cap in the
middle of rural Mekong Delta in VN!
Another good day, we screened 680 kids, and treated 343, gifts of toothbrush and school supplies provided to all 1,112 students at this elementary school, and 147 gifts to teachers and villagers who attended the dental health education session.
Another good day, we screened 680 kids, and treated 343, gifts of toothbrush and school supplies provided to all 1,112 students at this elementary school, and 147 gifts to teachers and villagers who attended the dental health education session.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Day 5 - Wednesday, February 27, 2013 OUR FIRST CLINIC DAY - CAI BE District, MY LOI A Elementary School
Breakfast at 6 am (it is 6pm at home in the US) in the open air
courtyard, very good choices of beef noodles, pork noodles, eggs
prepared to order, rice and pork chops, crusty bread, butter and
jam,Vietnamese coffee, fruit juice, tea, milk, food is very good in VN
if you are not a picky-eater!
7am we loaded supplies in our van, join the van of the Red Cross staff, our box truck, form a convoy to head to district Cai Be at the far end of the province, it took nearly an hour and a half to reach My Loi A elementary school. The fifth graders dress in their best school uniform gather in large groups waiting for our arrival. No classes for the day so the students can be treated by our team.
It took 30 chaotic minutes to create our make shift clinic. Two side by side classrooms were chosen for our use. One classroom is the actual dental clinic, tables are set on both sides of the door in front of the classroom, one side is where the kids will be screened and the teeth need taken out or fluoride treatment will be marked before they go inside the room, on the other side of the door is a table with home care package where the kids will get their names checked, receive the gift and leave after treatment. Inside the classroom we set up a sterilization station against the back wall, 3 fluoride stations on one side, 3 surgical stations on the other, up front by the blackboard is the pharmacy station, in the middle of the classroom is the waiting area lined with tables and chairs for our little patients, there are toys, puzzles, coloring books for the kids to enjoy while they wait for their turn. We use the student's tables and chairs to make up all of these treatment stations. The classroom next door is used as an office/supply/lunch/everything room for our team.
Lan at first station at the door of "our clinic", doing dental
education, obtaining consent, marking the teeth that need treatment.
Robin our hygienist doing scaling, fluoride treatment, sometimes
injection and extraction of broken deciduous teeth with the help of an
assistant Oanh.
Phuong and Dr. Hue doing fluoride treatment for a patient with the help of Lien, a local assistant.
Lea and her assistant Tho giving fluoride sealant to a little girl.
Paul and his assistant Tien at an extraction station.
Dr. Mikey watching Dr. Shannon administering local anesthesia to a brave patient, Tram is Dr. Shannon's assistant.
Trang is at "Pharmacy/Santa station" comforting kids after treatment,
giving post op. instruction, cleaning them up, giving them antibiotics
and anti-inflammatory medication as well as gifts of different toys.
Afternoon dental health education provided to parents with children
under 5 as part of our dental disease prevention and community
empowerment program at every village our team comes to serve.
Today we screened 628 students (234 received dental treatment of
fluoride or extraction, many times both, most children had multiple
extractions) all received a gift bag of toothbrush, school supplies, and
toys. We gave total of 1,017 toothbrushes for all the kids at this
school, 145 gift bags to the school teachers and villagers today. First
day of our dental outreach is usually the hardest day for the team
since we just came together from half way around the world and many are
new to our set up, yet today turns out to be a terrifically productive
and wonderfully satisfying day!
7am we loaded supplies in our van, join the van of the Red Cross staff, our box truck, form a convoy to head to district Cai Be at the far end of the province, it took nearly an hour and a half to reach My Loi A elementary school. The fifth graders dress in their best school uniform gather in large groups waiting for our arrival. No classes for the day so the students can be treated by our team.
It took 30 chaotic minutes to create our make shift clinic. Two side by side classrooms were chosen for our use. One classroom is the actual dental clinic, tables are set on both sides of the door in front of the classroom, one side is where the kids will be screened and the teeth need taken out or fluoride treatment will be marked before they go inside the room, on the other side of the door is a table with home care package where the kids will get their names checked, receive the gift and leave after treatment. Inside the classroom we set up a sterilization station against the back wall, 3 fluoride stations on one side, 3 surgical stations on the other, up front by the blackboard is the pharmacy station, in the middle of the classroom is the waiting area lined with tables and chairs for our little patients, there are toys, puzzles, coloring books for the kids to enjoy while they wait for their turn. We use the student's tables and chairs to make up all of these treatment stations. The classroom next door is used as an office/supply/lunch/everything room for our team.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Day 4 - Tuesday, February 26, 2013 TRAVELING SOUTHWEST FROM SAIGON TO TIEN GIANG
Our rental 3 ton truck showed up at Hung's house at 5 am to pick up all of the supplies, then the
truck and another rental van came to our hotel to pick up all of us and our
suitcases and more supplies we brought with us from the US. Today we headed South
to the Mekong Delta, stopping by Long An at Dr. Hue's house to pick up - yes -
more supplies and all our our stored equipment in many large boxes, had
to rent another truck to haul the rest of our load to our hotel in My
Tho. Met the local Red Cross to go over the logistic and our schedule
for the next 8 days. The team was taken on a boat tour on the Mekong River,
stopping by the island of Thoi Son to taste tropical fruits in the
orchard and coconut candy factory.
Our team on the bank of the mighty Mekong River, the world 12th longest river, 7th longest in Asia, a trans-boundary river begins in the Tibetan plateau, known as the "roof of the world" the highest plateau in the world at almost 15,000 ft. snaking through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Here in the Mekong Delta the river has 9 tributaries (Nive Dragon River Delta) that empty into the South China Sea. Recently it has been dubbed "biological treasure trove". Over 10,000 new species have been discovered in previously unexplored areas of the Mekong Delta, including a species of rat thought to be extinct. Tien Giang province is situated on the northern most part of the Mekong Delta, including a couple of the 9 tributaries of the Mekong River.
Padraic and Dr. Shannon from Buffalo, New York celebrating their second trip to VN with the Director of Tien Giang Red Cross Dr. Lang and vice director Mr. Tam. It is really nice to be back to VN and see old Red Cross friends again. We are treated to a feast as a welcome dinner with all the Red Cross staff.
Dr. Lien the formidable lady I hug with my right arm in this photo, she
is the first Red Cross director in VN I met after 10 years of searching
for ways to bring dental care to people living in rural villages, it was
Dr. Lien who really believe in my effort and vision, she is the one who
truly knows and values the importance of good dental health, and she
took it upon herself to make it possible for our team to return years
after years to help the children of her province. Standing from left to
right Dr. Lang, the current Red Cross director, Dr. Paul from Maine,
Dr. Lien the retired Red Cross Director, Lan (me), Van from Houston,
sitting from left Dr. Hue from Long An, Dr. Mikey from New York City,
Robin from Main (Paul belongs to her as you can guess.)
Below, Dr. Mickey, Robin, and Phuong, enjoy delicious vegetarian spread (Paul, Trang and Van are also vegetarians on the team). The food is absolutely out of this world, prepared with love by Ms Thuy, our cook for the past 9 years.
Inventory of our supplies before going to bed, get ready for the first clinic day tomorrow.
Our team on the bank of the mighty Mekong River, the world 12th longest river, 7th longest in Asia, a trans-boundary river begins in the Tibetan plateau, known as the "roof of the world" the highest plateau in the world at almost 15,000 ft. snaking through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Here in the Mekong Delta the river has 9 tributaries (Nive Dragon River Delta) that empty into the South China Sea. Recently it has been dubbed "biological treasure trove". Over 10,000 new species have been discovered in previously unexplored areas of the Mekong Delta, including a species of rat thought to be extinct. Tien Giang province is situated on the northern most part of the Mekong Delta, including a couple of the 9 tributaries of the Mekong River.
Padraic and Dr. Shannon from Buffalo, New York celebrating their second trip to VN with the Director of Tien Giang Red Cross Dr. Lang and vice director Mr. Tam. It is really nice to be back to VN and see old Red Cross friends again. We are treated to a feast as a welcome dinner with all the Red Cross staff.
Below, Dr. Mickey, Robin, and Phuong, enjoy delicious vegetarian spread (Paul, Trang and Van are also vegetarians on the team). The food is absolutely out of this world, prepared with love by Ms Thuy, our cook for the past 9 years.
Inventory of our supplies before going to bed, get ready for the first clinic day tomorrow.
Monday, February 25, 2013
Day 3 - Monday, February 25, 2013 ARRIVING IN VIETNAM - TEAM MEMBERS MEET IN SAIGON
Good Morning Vietnam!
Saigon, the Pearl of the Orient, viewed from my hotel room. Right below the balcony is the Hospital Grall. Built by the French in 1867, it was originally a Navy hospital, then it became an Army hospital. Dr. Grall came on staff in 1905, 20 years later the hospital was named after him, hence Hospital Grall as my parents and my generations growing up in VN knew it. In 1958 the hospital became a public hospital with 560 beds. In 1978 it changed again to become Children Hospital 2 and remains until present. This hospital has been in operation for over 140 years, it is now being renovated and upgraded with the funds from Oxford University and Wellcome-Trust foundation from England. The trees lining the streets in Saigon are mostly over a hundred year old tamarind trees. The tart fruits are the main ingredients in many Asian dishes and drinks. If you can see two church steeples in the upper middle of the photo, it's the famous Notre Dame Catholic church of Saigon. The high rise buildings are popping up all over the business district of Saigon in the last 15 years as the world is rediscovering the Pearl of the Orient again.
Finally after months of emails and phone calls, we get to see each other in Saigon. Dr. Shannon, Dr. Mickey & Padraic from New York, Dr. Paul & wife Robin from Maine, Lea from San Francisco, Trang & Phuong from Dallas, Van from Houston, Hung & his wife Nhu from Saigon, Dr. Hue from Long An. 12 of us, the team of VN 2013.
We purchased in advance thousands of toothbrushes, tubes of toothpaste,
notebooks, pens, bars of soap, bath towels along with large amount of
dental supplies that have to be delivered by large box trucks from
different companies. When the trucks arrive tonight we form a human
chain to unload the goods at Hung's house.
Saigon, the Pearl of the Orient, viewed from my hotel room. Right below the balcony is the Hospital Grall. Built by the French in 1867, it was originally a Navy hospital, then it became an Army hospital. Dr. Grall came on staff in 1905, 20 years later the hospital was named after him, hence Hospital Grall as my parents and my generations growing up in VN knew it. In 1958 the hospital became a public hospital with 560 beds. In 1978 it changed again to become Children Hospital 2 and remains until present. This hospital has been in operation for over 140 years, it is now being renovated and upgraded with the funds from Oxford University and Wellcome-Trust foundation from England. The trees lining the streets in Saigon are mostly over a hundred year old tamarind trees. The tart fruits are the main ingredients in many Asian dishes and drinks. If you can see two church steeples in the upper middle of the photo, it's the famous Notre Dame Catholic church of Saigon. The high rise buildings are popping up all over the business district of Saigon in the last 15 years as the world is rediscovering the Pearl of the Orient again.
Finally after months of emails and phone calls, we get to see each other in Saigon. Dr. Shannon, Dr. Mickey & Padraic from New York, Dr. Paul & wife Robin from Maine, Lea from San Francisco, Trang & Phuong from Dallas, Van from Houston, Hung & his wife Nhu from Saigon, Dr. Hue from Long An. 12 of us, the team of VN 2013.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Day 1 & 2 - Saturday and Sunday, February 23 - 24, 2013 INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT TO VIETNAM
These 2 days blend together as I fly from Knoxville, Tennessee to
Saigon, Vietnam via Chicago and Seoul, Korea. I show up 2 hours before
departure, take a quick 1hr 30 min. flight to Chicago from Knoxville, then 4 hrs layover in Chicago, then a 13 hr. flight to Seoul, another 3 hrs 30 min. layover
in Seoul, then finally a 7 hour flight to Saigon. A day and a half, it may sound long, but
it is still the fastest way to travel 10 thousand miles half way around
the world. Knoxville was 47°F with misty rain when I left home. Chicago and
Seoul were blanketed in snow from the window of the airplanes. Saigon is 80°F at 11 pm. It is exactly 12 hours difference from home - upside down - midnight
in Vietnam is noon at home in Knoxville, TN.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT TO VIETNAM
These 2 days blend together as I fly from Knoxville, Tennessee to Saigon, Vietnam via Chicago and Seoul, Korea. I show up 2 hours before departure, take a quick 1hr 30 min. flight to Chicago from Knoxville, then 4 hrs connection in Chicago, then 13 hr. flight to Seoul, another 3 hrs 30 min. connection in Seoul, then finally 7 hour flight to Saigon. A day and a half, it may sound long but it is still the fastest way to travel 10 thousand miles half way around the world. Knoxville was 47 F misty rain when I left home, Chicago and Seoul were blanketed in snow from the window of the airplanes, Saigon 80 F at 11 pm. It is exactly 12 hours difference, upside down, midnight in VN is noon at home in Knoxville, TN.
Day 3 - Monday, February 25, 2013
ARIVING VIETNAM - TEAM MEMBERS MEET IN SAIGON
Good Morning Vietnam!
Saigon, the Pearl of the Orient, view from my hotel room. Right below the balcony is the hospital Grall built by the French since 1867, was originally Navy hospital, then it became Army hospital. Dr. Grall came on staff in 1905, 20 years later the hospital was named after him, hence Hospital Grall as my parents and my generation grew up in VN knew it. In 1958 the hospital became a public hospital with 560 beds. In 1978 it changed again to become Children Hospital 2 and remains until present. This hospital has been in operation for over 140 years, it is now being renovated and upgraded with the funds from Oxford University and Wellcome-Trust foundation from England. The trees lined the streets in Saigon are mostly over a hundred year old tamarind trees, the tart fruits are the main ingredients in many Asian dishes and drinks. If you can see two church steeples in the upper middle of the photo, it's the famous Notre Dame Catholic church of Saigon. The high rise buildings are popping up all over the business district of Saigon in the last 15 years as the world is rediscovering the Pearl of the Orient again.
Finally after months of emails and phone calls, we get to see each other in Saigon. Dr. Shannon, Dr. Mickey & Padraic from New York, Dr. Paul & wife Robin from Maine, Lea from San Francisco, Trang & Phuong from Dallas, Van from Houston, Hung & his wife Nhu from Saigon, Dr. Hue from Long An. 12 of us, the team of VN 2013.
Day 4 - Tuesday, February 26, 2013
TRAVELING SOUTHWEST FROM SAIGON TO TIEN GIANG
Our rental 3 ton truck showed up at Hung's house at 5 am to pick up all of the supplies, then the truck and another rental van came to our hotel to pick up all of us and our suitcases and more supplies we brought with us from the US. Today we headed South to the Mekong Delta, stopping by Long An at Dr. Hue's house to pick up - yes - more supplies and all our our stored equipment in many large boxes, had to rent another truck to haul the rest of our load to our hotel in My Tho. Met the local Red Cross to go over the logistic and our schedule for the next 8 days. The team was taken on a boat tour on the Mekong River, stopping by the island of Thoi Son to taste tropical fruits in the orchard and coconut candy factory.
Our team on the bank of the mighty Mekong River, the world 12th longest river, 7th longest in Asia, a trans-boundary river begins in the Tibetan plateau, known as the "roof of the world" the highest plateau in the world at almost 15,000 ft. snaking through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Here in the Mekong Delta the river has 9 tributaries (Nive Dragon River Delta) that empty into the South China Sea. Recently it has been dubbed "biological treasure trove". Over 10,000 new species have been discovered in previously unexplored areas of the Mekong Delta, including a species of rat thought to be extinct. Tien Giang province is situated on the northern most part of the Mekong Delta, including a couple of the 9 tributaries of the Mekong River.
Padraic and Dr. Shannon from Buffalo, New York celebrating their second trip to VN with the Director of Tien Giang Red Cross Dr. Lang and vice director Mr. Tam. It is really nice to be back to VN and see old Red Cross friends again. We are treated to a feast as a welcome dinner with all the Red Cross staff.
Below, Dr. Mickey, Robin, and Phuong, enjoy delicious vegetarian spread (Paul, Trang and Van are also vegetarians on the team). The food is absolutely out of this world, prepared with love by Ms Thuy, our cook for the past 9 years.
Inventory of our supplies before going to bed, get ready for the first clinic day tomorrow.
Day 5 - Wednesday, February 27, 2013
OUR FIRST CLINIC DAY - CAI BE District, MY LOI A Elementary School
Breakfast at 6 am (it is 6pm at home in the US) in the open air courtyard, very good choices of beef noodles, pork noodles, eggs prepared to order, rice and pork chops, crusty bread, butter and jam,Vietnamese coffee, fruit juice, tea, milk, food is very good in VN if you are not a picky-eater!
7am we loaded supplies in our van, join the van of the Red Cross staff, our box truck, form a convoy to head to district Cai Be at the far end of the province, it took nearly an hour and a half to reach My Loi A elementary school. The fifth graders dress in their best school uniform gather in large groups waiting for our arrival. No classes for the day so the students can be treated by our team.
It took 30 chaotic minutes to create our make shift clinic. Two side by side classrooms were chosen for our use. One classroom is the actual dental clinic, tables are set on both sides of the door in front of the classroom, one side is where the kids will be screened and the teeth need taken out or fluoride treatment will be marked before they go inside the room, on the other side of the door is a table with home care package where the kids will get their names checked, receive the gift and leave after treatment. Inside the classroom we set up a sterilization station against the back wall, 3 fluoride stations on one side, 3 surgical stations on the other, up front by the blackboard is the pharmacy station, in the middle of the classroom is the waiting area lined with tables and chairs for our little patients, there are toys, puzzles, coloring books for the kids to enjoy while they wait for their turn. We use the student's tables and chairs to make up all of these treatment stations. The classroom next door is used as an office/supply/lunch/everything room for our team.
Day 6 - Thursday, February 28, 2013
SECOND CLINIC DAY - CAI LAY District, THANH LOC Elementary School
After a first clinic day like yesterday, we are all charged up for today. We reach Thanh Loc Elementary school after a long 1hr.20mn. drive from our hotel in My Tho. We are pleased to see the students lined up in the school playground, it shows that the school administrative and teachers do care about the dental health of their pupils, that is a very good sign.
Another good day, we screened 680 kids, and treated 343, gifts of toothbrush and school supplies provided to all 1,112 students at this elementary school, and 147 gifts to teachers and villagers who attended the dental health education session.
Day 7 - Friday March 1, 2013
THIRD CLINIC DAY - GO CONG DONG District, KIENG PHUOC Elementary School
Day 8 - Saturday March 2, 2013
CLINIC DAY - TAN PHUOC District, TAN THANH A Elementary School
In this area, when I asked the children what their parents do, almost all of them said farming rice or other agricultural labor work. Yesterday we were in Go Cong Dong where most children live in the fishing village, their parents work on a fishing boat, in net making factory, sorting shrimp, cleaning fish, processing the catch of the day. Regardless of making a subsistence living off the land or sea, these families live on less than $2 - 3/day, a price of a cup of Starbuck coffee here in the US.
Photo of the "crew" after a good clinic day! Another terrific day in Vietnam!
Day 9 - Sunday March 3, 2013
Dental Health Education Community Service Day, CHAU THANH District, Nhi Binh Village
Nhi Binh village was chosen by the Tien Giang Red Cross because this is one of the poorest village in the province. Many families in this community are afflicted with leprosy, and even though forced quarantine or segregation of leprosy patients is unnecessary, many people are still afraid of coming in contact with these villagers and would not buy the local products grown or made from this area , so the economy here suffers as the result of this stigma.
 | |||||
Now we can have the rest of the day off, a little break to enjoy the sight and sound of the Mekong River. We went on a boat tour to see the floating market of Cai Be, visited a few gift shops, and had lunch at an ancient farm house.
Day 10 - Monday March 4, 2013
CLINIC DAY - TAN PHU DONG District, TAN PHU Elementary School
Tan Phu Dong district (comprises of 3 islands) is the poorest of 8 districts of Tien Giang. It takes nearly 2 hours to reach Tan Phu Elementary school as we have to travel a long way by car and cross the Mekong river by ferry. We are prepared, we brought a lot of toys with us for the kids on this island.
It was P.E. class for these kids, they were playing catch and kick the balls, Paul and Padraic played with them and notice that many of the soccer balls were soft and needed more air. Paul and Robin brought with them a very nice soccer ball and a nifty pump, they were waiting to find the right school to give the ball and pump to.
Day 11 - Tuesday March 5, 2013
CLINIC DAY - GO CONG TAY District, LONG BINH Elementary School
A little over an hour drive from our hotel to Long Binh elementary school, our last clinic day and we all look forward to everything going smoothly. This school is organized and things are looking good at the start.
There is a good lesson learned in what happened the day before in Tan Phu Dong where we had to cancel our clinic day. Today we are in the village just across the Mekong River from the school yesterday, yet everything goes exceptionally well, we are able to provide free dental treatment to 311kids, hand out gifts to 1075 student population of the school, and 174 gifts to teachers and parents with children under 5 who came to the dental health education session, a beautifully productive day without problem with any local official. Not only that, I find the teachers at Long Binh elementary school caring and loving to their pupils, go above and beyond the call of duty to assist our team, rearranging their day and willing to help us so that we can see more kids with our limited time, they are happy to welcome our team to their school and grateful for our dental services, it is far and few in between when we come across a school like this one. This school is on top of my list this year and wins the pick for a Five Year Dental Health Education Program. It will start with the school year 2013 - 2014 until 2017-2018, DDS4Kids will provide all of the students (~1,075) at Long Binh 2 dental health education sessions per school year and a new toothbrush for every student each time. Dr. Hue, Hung, and Tien Giang Red Cross staff will carry out these sessions. Long Binh elementary school is the 5th school that was chosen in the past 10 years in Tien Giang. The previous schools reported the rate of decay among the students dropped drastically from nearly 100% to 45% - 35% after 5 years, this is more than what I had hoped for, whatever improvement is considered a great success. We will never know the real impact of our dental health education program in rural VN, as with any education effort, the impact could have ripple effect for years to come.
Day 12 - Wednesday March 6, 2013
Dental Health Education Community Service Day - CHO GAO District, TAN THUAN BINH Village
We arrived to the Tan Thuan Binh Kindergarten to find a large group of over 200 parents and their kids gathered in the tiny courtyard and they had to stand from one corner of the yard to another, 180 degree span. It was quite impossible to use the blackboard to show the dental sketches to everyone. The sun heated up the open courtyard, the crowd was noisy, and we just had to carry out the dental health education as best as we could, it wasn't as well organized as the last community dental health session in Nhi Binh last Sunday.
Celebration Dinner at completion of our VN 2013 Dental Relief in Tien Giang
Tonight we have our celebration dinner with Tien Giang Red Cross. The Red Cross staff keeps a record of the supplies we gave at each school, and the number of children and adults we served during the dental relief operation.
Tien Giang province comprises one city (thành phố), one town (thị xã), and eight districts (huyện):
- Thành phố Mỹ Tho
- Thị xã Gò Công
- Gò Công Đông
- Gò Công Tây
- Chợ Gạo
- Châu Thành
- Tân Phước
- Cai Lậy
- Cái Bè
- Tân Phú Đông
Toothbrushes 8,396
Toothpaste 2.097
Notebooks 2,456
Pens 2,456
Bath towels 1,320
Family bar soap 1,342
Dry milk 100 lbs.
Blankets 20
Cash $956.00
The Red Cross computed an estimate of $17,000 US dollars in the donated goods.
This number does not include the contribution we made in dental services, the estimate would be more than $30,000.00 US dollars if calculated according to the cost of dental treatment in VN, but if we calculate according to the fees of dental treatment in the US, even if we go with the low fees of $100 per extraction of a permanent molar, $50.00 for fluoride treatment, the total estimate of the dental services we performed for 1250 children would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Total children and adults served: 8,461
12 of us are the core team of DDS4kids VN 2013, there are over 30 people in our supportive team as you can see here, but the real team is much bigger, the countless of family members and friends and supporters and past volunteers who directly and indirectly in all kind of ways contributed to the success of our dental operation today. If you read these lines, I hope you know we are grateful for your support and friendship, and thousands and thousands of families living in deep poverty wanted to thank you themselves if they could.
Day 13 - Thursday March 7, 2013
Team-Completion-Inventory-Wrap-up Day, TRAVELING BACK TO SAIGON & TO US
After breakfast it took us a few hours to check out of Tien Giang Hotel. We donated large amount of supplies of medication as well as children clothing with Dr. Lien so she will continue to hand them out to patients and families in need. Hung settled the expense with the hotel and went over the paperwork with Ms. Hang the accountant of Tien Giang Red Cross.
Our team were all in good spirit this morning, we said goodbye to our friends in Tien Giang and our convoy headed to Long An, to Hue's house to unload our supplies there, store until our return next year, and the supplies of notebooks and pens and toothbrushes and toys that she and Hung will need to take with them next month to perform the last dental health education at Tan Thoi elementary school before the school is over. Our yearly dental relief trip was over but our dental health education program in Tien Giang is an on-going program during the school year. And during the summer we also support many children so they can come to Saigon for needed treatments at different hospitals.
After Long An, we went North to Saigon, stopping at Hung's relatives home in 8th district for a farewell lunch before many of us head to the airport for the return flights back to the US. A family meal, one last party for DDS4Kids 2013 team.
Padraic, Shannon, Paul, Robin, and Mickey went directly to the airport this afternoon. Phuong went to meet with her friends and probably more food and celebration before she catches her flight tomorrow morning. Trang went to a hotel and enjoyed a few more days in VN with her relatives and friends. Van will spend another few weeks touring VN with her friends, retirement and having time is nice. Lea and I went to Hung's house to rest up, had one more bowl of pho (traditional beef noodles in Hung and Nhu's noodle shop) before going to the airport for our midnight flights back to the US. It was not hard to say goodbye, I knew I will get to see everyone again, in VN or in the US, this kind of trip makes friends for life.
Day 14 - Friday March 8, 2013
Arriving Home - Mission Accomplished
I touched down in Knoxville, TN in the late afternoon, gained back a day that I lost when I crossed the Dateline going West at the beginning of the trip. Ken showed up at the airport with our girl Grace - 100 lbs. Great Pyrenees therapy dog in the car, it was nice to be home in gorgeous Spring like weather after another incredible VN 2013 trip. I am so grateful!
Until VN 2014, farmer Lan signs off for now.
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