Global Dental Relief

Global Dental Relief volunteers have been working since 2001 to bring dental care to children overseas. GDR now works in six countries— Nepal, India, Vietnam, Guatemala, Kenya,^[2] and the newest location, Cambodia. In 2014, 249 dedicated volunteers served 13,000 children with $6.3 million in donated dental care in these six countries.^[3]

GDR's mission is to engage diverse groups of dental professionals and non-dental volunteers to bring free dental care to children in need throughout the world. Currently GDR has sixteen options in five countries to volunteer in a six-day clinic providing preventive care and oral health education to impoverished children.^[4]

History

Global Dental Relief (GDR) was founded in 2001 as the Himalayan Dental Relief Project by former Director of Colorado State Parks, Laurie Mathews and Andrew Holecek, DDS.^[5] While on sabbatical in Nepal, they recognized the desperate need for dental care in a country which, at the time, had 120 dentists for a population approaching 24 million.^[6] What started with a single makeshift clinic, serving children in the outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal, has branched out to the mountains of India, the seaside of Vietnam, the Mayan Highlands of Guatemala, the Karen Hills of Kenya and the Angkor region of northwest Cambodia.^[7]

Recent Updates

2014 Highlights^[8] In 2014, GDR reached 13,000 children in six countries, a ten percent increase in children served. Each child received an average of $204 in donated care. The non-profit worked with 239 volunteers—twenty percent more than the previous year—including 79 dentists, 25 hygienists, and 135 non-dental volunteers who formed strong teams delivering care and oral health education. In 2014 GDR provided $2.6 million in dental care, thanks to the long-standing, generous support of 616 individual and corporate partners.

References