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02 AFRICAN NEWS Dental Tribune African Sub-Saharan Edition | 1/2017 A Congolese Dental School - creating change six students at a time! Dr Graham Toulmin AM and his wife Wendy, also an AM, began developing dental work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) when it was known as Zaire and ruled by the dictator President Mobutu Sese Seko. Their family with 4 small boys lived there from 1987 till 1991 and then, with the country undergoing massive inflation and breakdown of law and order, with a coming civil war brewing, and after two evacuations to Kenya in two months, the family returned home. However Graham began doing short term visits to help the clinic, named after his wife – Clinique Dentaire Mama Wendy – to survive. And survive it did, through two civil wars that caused the deaths of 5 million people, because of the faithfulness and courage of the three dental officers, Timon, William and Ringo, that Graham had trained in his early years there. In 2014, with retirement in his sights, Graham had an anonymous donor come forward with a large donation to fund the building of a dental training institute in Aru, 600 kms to the north of the Mama Wendy clinic. This was a strategic move in a country still unstable in some regions as the clinic-institute would be close to the Ugandan border and safer than some places in eastern DRC. With government approval for a course that was aiming to turn out dentists with practical and clinical competencies, Ringo, with nursing qualifications in his background, enrolled as he had been trained by Graham and others as an ‘apprentice’ and although he had worked for 20 years as a dentist, the government was now demanding government- approved qualifications. The problem the school encountered was that there were no qualified teachers of dentistry available to head up the work in this area of DRC. Graham and Wendy, in visiting Aru with Keith Mentiplay to plan the building in September 2016, saw the state of teaching by non- dental personnel (the students were carving teeth out of soap and cutting cavities with scalpels as their practical work) and felt they needed to help. foundling dental They had no idea of the immensity of the task ahead of them as Graham was made ‘Chef du Section Dentaire’ and Wendy, by default, fell into the task of Administrator and Bursar with Building supervision on the side. The last two years were pretty tough, especially teaching dentistry in French and surviving with basic living conditions of no water supply or electricity, but they both somehow managed and the Dental Institute was opened on the 12th November 2015 to great fanfare in the community. The first group of students graduated in July 2016 with Ringo the top student in the whole superior training institute, the second group in July this year, and in October 2017, 6 new students began a revised and more practical three year dental course focusing on competencies in the clinic and problem-based learning. reception, The Dental Institute is unique in Congo. It has 8 fully functioning Adec 500 chairs which Keith Mentiplay installed and which a young technician that he trained, continues to maintain. It has a dental laboratory, sterilisation room, offices and classroom/library, waiting room and external generators and a water supply from tanks. It is a million dollar dental clinic funded and supplied from Australia and it is now self sufficient. There really is nothing like it in the whole country of DRC, which is the size of Western Europe, and where well-trained dental practitioners are few and far between. two The general population in the country live in tremendous poverty with many health issues, political challenges including dangerous militias and rebel groups in some eastern parts of the country and the dental problems that come along are never simple. Often one mandibular fracture a week due to motor bike accidents and no helmets. Until Dr Toulmin arrived, there was little to no hands-on training for future dentists except in the capital 2000 kms away but even that had 400 students but only 7 chairs, often not working. Thus students were forced to learn a theory-based syllabus and would graduate never having given an injection, done an extraction or a restoration. This is a recipe for disaster when presented with a live human patient! After their 2 years away, Graham and technology-savvy Wendy have returned to Sydney for a month with many fabulous war stories to tell. These include some daily struggles like not having the creature comforts we are so used to here in Australia, like running water, all the way to bureaucratic hurdles needed to be ‘jumped’ for appropriate visas for visiting dentists. Even in their down- time there are jobs to be done! In June after the students finished their exams, they were flown to Garamba National Park where over 2 days they examined and treated 86 of the 250 Park Rangers who patrol the park and protect the elephant population (1347) from poachers. These valuable rangers also protect local the the from community Lord’s Resistance Army (a rebel group and vicious religious cult who have committed atrocities in Northern Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the DRC). Without their visit these important community members would have no access to dental care. Their month long visit home to Australia was busy with speaking engagements, seeing friends and sponsors, sourcing supplies for the clinic, getting replacement parts unavailable in Uganda or Congo and getting medical tests. Wendy met up with Henry Schein Halas technicians to systematically work through how to get the Aru OPG machine working and this will be the first OPG in eastern Congo for more than 1000 kms. Graham and Wendy were very grateful for the dental supplies and teaching resources that Henry Schein Halas was able to provide and lunch with Gordon Anderson and Jessica Chasen a highlight. The work has moved ahead with the help of Henry Schein Halas over the last twenty years, an aid project that hasn’t crashed and burned, and in March 2018 will 30th anniversary. The Toulmins have returned to Congo for a final two years to begin the transition to Congolese and selfsufficiency and we look forward to hearing their news when they return. leadership celebrate its IMPRINT GROUP EDITOR Daniel ZIMMERMANN newsroom@dental-tribune.com Tel.: +44 161 223 1830- CLINICAL EDITORS Magda WOJTKIEWICZ Nathalie SCHÜLLER EDITOR Yvonne BACHMANN EDITOR & SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER Monique MEHLER MANAGING EDITOR & HEAD OF DTI COMMUNICATION SERVICES Marc CHALUPSKY COPY EDITORS Sabrina RAAFF Ann-Katrin PAULICK PUBLISHER/PRESIDENT/CEO Torsten R. 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The publishers do not assume responsibility for product names or claims, or statements made by advertisers. Opinions expressed by authors are their own and may not reflect those of Dental Tribune International. DENTAL TRIBUNE AFRICA SUB-SAHARA Modern Dentistry Media PO Box 76021 Wendywood 2144 South Africa T: +27 11 702 3195 | E: dentsa@iafrica.com www.moderndentistrymedia.com PUBLISHER: Ursula Jenkins ursula@moderndentistrymedia.com DESIGN & LAYOUT: C Designz