A group of College of New Caledonia’s dental studies students left for South America on June 12, where they’ll spend three weeks providing free dental care to children and adults near Lima, Peru.
The three dental hygiene and two dental assisting students – who just graduated this spring – plus one of their instructors are volunteering in San Jose Obrero, a city 45 minutes from Lima, Peru’s capital city.
One of them was Alyssa Petersen of 100 Mile House who recently graduated with her dental assistant certificate.
“They worked in a community centre and see as many as 800 children and adults of all ages,” says Heather Mohr, CNC’s dental hygiene instructor who organized the trip.
They provide restorative and preventive treatment, extractions, dental hygiene, as well as educational workshops.”
Besides taking some dental equipment, such as sonic scalers and hand pieces with them, the group also took face paint, balloons and crafts for the children, to get to know them better. They also took 800 toothbrushes for their patients to keep.
Dental hygiene students who went include Chanel Alderton, Katelyn Currie and Sam Eakin. The dental assisting students are Danielle Burton and Petersen. They were accompanied by Mohr and Dr. Paul Comparelli, a dentist from Houston, British Columbia.
Burton and Petersen returned to Prince George June 26 to write their national licensing exams. The remainder of the group will stay in Lima for another week and then spend the next two weeks travelling before returning July 16.
The group was volunteering through Developing World Connections, a Canadian grassroots, non-profit organization whose mission is to make a positive difference in the world.
Nestled on the Pacific coastline, Lima has a population of about nine million. The CNC contingent stayed at a local hostel in San Jose Obrero. And when they weren't doing clinical work, the group sampled different cuisines and experienced the Peruvian culture by taking Spanish lessons, salsa dancing lessons and toured around Lima.
Planning for the outreach trip began in September 2012 and the students had to raise $4,000 each. They held several fundraisers to help with the cost, including a successful poinsettia sale at Christmas. The poinsettias were provided by Northern Flowers Greenhouses of Quesnel.
The students each received a Study Abroad $500 bursary from CNC’s International Education department, while Currie received a $1,000 Pacific Horizons Scholarship from the Irving K. Barber Society.
The Northern BC Dental Hygiene Association and Lakewood Dental provided the supplies, as well as four companies in Dawson Creek, Clairmont, and Pouce Coupe donated $1,750 to help cover the cost of supplies.