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We all just returned from our Belize Mission Project on Ambergris Caye, an island just off the mainland of Belize. We provided dental services to the island community of San Pedro and to jungle communities on the mainland. The Belize Mission Project is comprised of dentists, physicians, dental hygienists, lab technicians, assistants and other helpers who join together to provide medical and dental services. They come together from all over the USA.
On our first day on the island, everyone assisted with unpacking an enormous container of donated medical supplies worth about $800,000.00 for the local San Pedro Poly Clinic. During our one week stay, 750 dental examinations were completed, 550 medical exams, 480 tooth extractions, 215 fillings, 69 dental cleanings and 52 hearing aids were fitted. The dental services were provided using portable dental chairs, which are really modified beach chairs and drills powered by compressed air form scuba tanks. All we had to do was to find a place to set up and suddenly there was a line.
We traveled by Boat through the Northern River Lagoon and then on to a tributary of the Belize river to the Maskall community and by plane to Placencia on the mainland. These trips were taken despite the tropical depression that sat over the entire area for the week and the extensive flooding caused by approximately two feet of rain. Also, regardless of the salt water crocodiles, which infest the area. The care we all provided is the only dental treatment that these communities receive in any given year.
It was an amazing experience and the wonderful people we cared for, regardless of their obvious poverty and amazingly difficult lives, have an incredibly positive attitude, big smiles on their faces and are so grateful for any assistance. It is just great to see, and a reminder of how lucky we are to have so many safety nets when things get tough. We all received such enormous personal reward by giving to the Belizeans and were really touched by the happiness expressed by those with so little.
We hope to be able to continue with charity missions and want to thanks all our patients and suppliers who made the mission possible. Without your help we would not have been able to take the time away from our practice and would not have had all the supplies necessary to provide this care.
If you would like any more information, please feel free to visit the Belize Mission Project site at: www.BelizeMissionProject.com and for some local newspaper photos and articles go to: http://www.sanpedrosun.net/
http://www.ambergriscayenews.com/html/index2.php?p=fpd
Edward T. Dougherty Jr., and the Dougherty Dental Team
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