Dr Navid Tahir explains how he and a team from Whitworth Dental Care & Park House Dental travelled to Morocco to provide essential dental care.
We at Whitworth Dental Care & Park House Dental decided to work in collaboration with Dental Mavericks to help give dental aid to the local communities in the Rif Mountains of Morocco in October 2022.
We aim to provide dental care to the local population as well as provide dental stock and dental equipment for future use.
Our long term aim in future years will be to attempt to build a dental clinic in the Rif Mountains so that dental care can be provided in a clean and safe clinical environment.
Committed to make a change
Whitworth Dental Care & Park House Dental have provided dental care for many years, with a focus on preventative care and dental care for children.
They are both accredited training practices where we help to pass on the skills we have learned to others. We plan to take this further in our charity work so that we can help teach and build clinics in areas of high need abroad.
The practices supported a team of three people to go to Morocco and provide much needed dental care and dental supplies for the local population. Many of these were children living in rural areas with poor access to dental care.
Volunteering in the second round of aid work was myself, Dr Mehak Sohail and Joanna Sobecka. We funded our own travel and accommodation. All funds raised are donated to Dental Mavericks for charity work via Just Giving and the project can be followed at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/navid-tahir.
From the previous year’s charity work, the dental teams have been actively involved in fundraising for Project Morocco with activities such as a braid stall at Didsbury Family Fun Day, making bracelets at Littleborough ‘Quackers’ Festivaland a charity walk around Dovestone Reservoir.
Donations
We would like to thank all the medical supply companies for helping with donations in this charity project. A special thanks to Emma Bolton at SDI, Nathan and Nicola at Septodont, Janet at Colgate, Alistair and Adam at Henry Schein as well as John and Gary at GC.
They have donated products allowing the team to take along filling materials, anaesthetics, toothpaste and dental materials/equipment. This allowed us to provide emergency care on our aid trip in October.
The team aimed to raise £15,000 this year, however we managed to raise a total of £17,399.91, including Gift Aid. We would like to thank everyone ranging from patients, schools, religious establishments and local businesses for their contributions and efforts.
The Dental Mavericks aid team successfully completed five full clinic days in four different locations, plus provided 1,856 children with oral hygiene education, fluoride, and their own toothbrush and toothpaste to take home.
Other highlights included a lunch and shopping trip to the beautiful town of Chefchaouen, munching on delicious homecooked meals at the gite where we stayed, and so many laughs with our lovely Moroccan colleagues!
We were grateful to add to our team three volunteers from the Moroccan Red Cross, who supplied an ambulance, as well as being our translation service. Most importantly, we managed to take 445 local children out of dental pain! A massive thanks to all the volunteers.
We were able to visit the new site of our project, a permanent clinic in Bab Taza, the town that Dental Mavericks work in.We hope to raise more funds and help the Moroccan community of Tazouka.
The meetings so far have been very successful and we have gained some land to start the building of a dental clinic in the Tazouka region. Our aim is to provide dental services all year round, not just to children, but to teenagers and adults too.
Special thanks
Dental Mavericks have worked for more than 10 years on helping communities around the world who need dental support.
We would like to thank all the stock suppliers for their kind donations namely: Henry Schein, SDI, Colgate, GC Fuji, Septodont, Swift Dental and McKillop Dental.
Imran, Shahzad and Navid Tahir (directors) would also like to thank their staff team at Whitworth Dental Care, Rochdale and Parkhouse Dental Practice, Accrington for all their efforts in helping towards this charitable cause. We hope to continue our efforts and keep everyone up to date for our future projects.
It was great work and a successful team effort – a special thanks to Cally Gedge and the Dental Mavericks team who kindly supported and look after us all so well whilst we performed the aid work.
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