Dental Health Week October 21-25, 2024

WE identified Oral health care as a priority health need in thE Jamaican blue mountains, so WE organized a Dental Health Week EVENT at Mavis Bank Health Centre. We made connections, provided services, and educated residents of the community about their dental health, AT NO COST TO THEM.

read on for all the details!

We can’t even begin to put into words how meaningful this experience was for us. While there is no equivalent to being on the ground and seeing the impact that community health improvement initiatives can have, we’ve put together a “digital diary” to share all of the amazing things that were accomplished by and for this community during Dental Health Week! We hope you enjoy, and please don’t hesitate to reach out to us about supporting this initiative at any time.

Our CEO Stephanie Moxley and her partner for this project, Cheryl Horton, coordinated and implemented the following:

• Brought local and international dental professionals to Mavis Bank Health Centre to staff a primary dental care clinic for 4 days, free of charge to residents

• Distributed dental care supplies and educational resources to residents attending the clinic, and to local schools

• Met with local governmental and community representatives to receive feedback about the project - and got their enthusiastic support!

More details about each of these activities follows…

MAVIS bank health centre dental clinic

One of the major findings of the community health assessment for the Jamaican Blue Mountains was that there is a fully functional dental care clinic in Mavis Bank that only lacks staff to maintain it. By fundraising, volunteering, and partnering with local dental health professionals and government, we were able to run this clinic for 4 days free of charge to residents! We saw over 120 patients, provided comprehensive education about oral health, and handed out hundreds of kits with toothpaste, toothbrushes, mouthwash, and floss.

outreach to local schools

While we were in the Jamaican Blue Mountains we wanted to make sure to have maximum impact. Outreach is SO important in public health because not all residents of an area will always be able to access available resources. We went to two different schools in the community to drop off hundreds of dental health kits and hand out educational coloring sheets about oral health. We LOVED connecting with the students, teachers, and administrators and bringing needed supplies right to these residents.

Meeting with local governmental and community representatives

Collaboration is one our company’s core values because without it, community health improvement is not possible. It takes a whole community working together to see real outcomes… so we reached out to leaders in the community to update them about our work, ask for their feedback, and seek support. We were blown away by the enthusiastic support we received!

We were fortunate to have lunch with the Kingston Mayor's office representatives. We had been corresponding with them and were so excited to have this lunch to tell them in detail (and in person!) what we had helped to do at the rural health center in Mavis Bank. One of the representatives, Jesse James Clarke, IMMEDIATELY took action and asked the government to provide working dental health equipment and regular dental health services to Mavis Bank. See the video in our LinkedIn post.

We also had the amazing opportunity to meet the CEO of the Mavis Bank Coffee Factory - one of the community’s largest employers and supporter of local farmers. It is so important to think BIG in making community connections and consider all of the players in improving a community’s health.

We are still accepting donations for this community