Bolivia > Puerto Camacho > Updates
On 3-5th December 2009, five dentists, a nutritionist and a paediatrician gave their time to help carry out a health campaign to discover the state of health and teeth amongst the children and their parents.
Over the three days the dentists carried out check-ups to review the general state of teeth. They also gave them fluoride treatments to help protect teeth, and carried out extractions of milk teeth where they were preventing the adult teeth from coming through.
The nutritionist carried out a haemoglobin analysis to discover the level of anaemia and the paediatrician gave general medical check ups. Each child and parents was also weighed and had their height measured.
Although Bolivia is the poorest South American country, there is a large divide between the rich and poor societies resulting in stigmatism and misunderstanding between the groups. It was therefore wonderful to see Bolivian professionals breaking down that barrier and giving their time and skills to help the poor in their own country. The dentists and medical professionals who volunteered are keen to offer their time again to serve Puerto Camacho.
In the project, children are taught about nutrition and hygiene practices such as hand washing, teeth brushing, the importance of a balanced diet etc to train them to look after themselves and improve their health. To help create habits, the children have to wash their hands and brush their teeth each time they come to classes. Monitoring is also carried out through home visits to the families. In the future we hope to carry out more training with parents so that they too train the children to develop these habits at home.
