Media Release
Udupi, Aug 23: The dental interns and their faculty from the Manipal College of Dental Sciences, in collaboration with European Dental Students Association (EDSA) and 'Wisdomtooth', a dental volunteer organization from USA, successfully conducted a major dental outreach for the second consecutive year under the banner of Amchi programme. The program was scheduled between August 2 to August 14.
The project that had started in 2012 is today a programme, with volunteers running it in one year cycles taking over from their predecessors. This year the project was conducted by Dr Kanika Sabhlok and Dr Mahipal Singh Rathore under the guidance of Dr Shashidhar Acharya, a public health dentist who is also a founding volunteer of the project since 2012.
The foreign delegation of volunteers was headed by Dr Andrew Bartram (United Kingdom) and Dr Elnaz Khodabandehlou (Sweden); Dr Keiko Saito joined the team from Okayama University, Japan on behalf of Association of Medical Doctors of Asia (AMDA).
After over 10 months of planning, 39 volunteers reached out to Ladakh’s remotest areas early this month. The team comprised students and doctors from 11 nations (UK, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Spain, Canada, Romania, Kenya, & Japan) and Manipal University.
The remote and sparsely populated areas of Ladakh were chosen due to poor access to health services and relative lack of health care.
Apart from executing the objectives of the mission in 2012, this year the team was able to implement new initiatives such as the ‘Amchi Smiles’ initiative, a health and hygiene education program.
The mission also trained Amchi nuns in June 2013 followed by training of a new batch during the current outreach. They were trained in oral health education and basic intervention.
Direct dental and preventative care, medical screening and acute medical care was provided as the team investigated treatment needs of the population in Ladakh and remote outlying areas.
After outreaching eastern Ladakh in 2012, this year in 2013 the team outreached western parts of the Ladakh region such as, Kargil, Padum & the district capital of Leh.
Over the course of the 12 days project their multidisciplinary team provided health screening for over 1500 people and treated 1000 individuals. A total of five junior and high schools were outreached during this mission.
The volunteers from Manipal University included, Dr Shashidhar Acharya, Dr Sridhar N, Dr Srikanth G, Dr Kalyan Chakravarthy, Dr Kanika Sabhlok, Dr Mahipal Singh Rathore, Dr Sampada Deshpande, Dr Eshan Verma, Dr Gursimran Bhangra, Dr Samra Khalid, Dr Saurabh Sharma, Dr Gargi Mitra, Dr Aakash Bansal, Dr Ankita Agrawal, Dr Amin Nasehi and Dinesh Poojary.
The term ‘Amchi’ stands for community medical servants in Ladakhi, who are selflessly dedicated to support humanitarian projects for the welfare of the community.
The Amchi programme is aimed at educating and increasing the skills of local healthcare providers, allowing them to provide basic dental care in Ladakh. The programme also provides a platform for budding dental professionals to experience community involvement and outreach work at an early period in their professional lives.
According to them this will result in a sustained improvement in the quality of life for the local population and create social commitment among volunteers who run the program year after year.
This project was only possible through the kind donations of national and international supporters and participants, along with determined local governmental support for which they were extremely grateful.
The programme welcomes any further support and is proud as their projects have been successful and eventful for two consecutive years. They hope that it will make a resounding difference in the years to come.