Our guide Patrick takes us to meet his family in Sipi Village.
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One of our "international" teams consisting of volunteers from the USA, Canada, Great Britain and Israel.
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Yekholam is the elder of Nabugoye and a subsistence farmer.
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It keeps getting better as we grow
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After
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With our February 2018 mission just completed we now have conducted 11 trips to the Abayudaya community over the past 5 years. Group leader Dr. Vickie Sugarman and her team of all Canadian volunteers were so moved by what they termed, "this life changing experience", that they have already signed on for the February 2019 mission.
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Always a thrill experiencing the adventure and majesty of Sipi Falls
This article appeared in the Putti Village Assistance Organization newsletter after our July, 2017 mission.
Dr. David Abramowitz and Sjimon den Hollander
Dental Relief for Putti
Dental care within the KKSY Putti Community has always been an enormous problem. There are no affordable local dentists in this region. A few days ago, Sjimon den Hollander (Chairman) and
Ros Eisen (Secretary) both representing the PVAO Charity www.puttivillage.org, by chance, met up with Dr. David Abramowitz, who had three dental colleagues traveling with him. They were here to treat Jewish, Christian and Muslim Community members located at Nabugoye in the Mbale region of Uganda. David visits this region about three times a year, but thus far, he did not manage to treat any KKSY/Putti patients, due to the location and transport difficulties.
Sjimon and Ros set about asking the Puttis if anyone had dental problems – the answer was yes, in fact two students had been experiencing really bad dental pain for quite some time. Sjimon and Ros arranged for the KKSY Puttis, including the two students, to be sent, together with another vehicle load of Puttis, to David’s clinic. They were accompanied by Jonathan Lali who is in charge of working with PVAO with the aim of helping them to receive medical treatment.
The PVAO driver set off at 7:00am to ensure the patients could arrived at the Dental Clinic first. They were joined by two local dentists, who had, we believe, also volunteered their time and services. The dentists saw all of the KKSY/ Putti patients. One of whom needed an extraction, and the others who all had less severe problems, mainly cavities and were treated accordingly. If patients were prescribed post treatment medication, (painkillers and antibiotics, for example), PVAO arranged for the drugs to be purchased at a local pharmacy and given to the patients. It is now hoped that when David and his Team, who were treating up to 200 patients a day in Nabugoye, return to Uganda, PVAO will arrange for some more of the KKSY Putti members to get dental treatment.
The Puttis seem to have no knowledge of dental hygiene whatsoever, meaning, if they have untreated gum disease or tooth decay, it is likely to lead to much more dangerous symptoms.
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Our mission in October 2016 brought many wonderful changes. The Community Center has been completed and we were able to utilize the new facility to set up our mobile, outreach clinic. We now have a spacious, well-organized, comfortable working environment to treat the community.
The July 2016 dental mission was a resounding success. Our mission volunteers worked non-stop in providing dental care that was once unimaginable in the remote rainforests of Uganda. We were blessed to have had two extraordinary clinicians accompany us from the faculty of the Tel Aviv University School of Dental Medicine. Dr. Guy Melamede, who heads the program of Oral Rehabilitation, and Dr. Alona Perlman, who heads the program of Pain Control and Morphology, provided advanced restorative dental care to patients, the majority of whom have never had any prior dental treatment. Dr. Jeff Goldsmith, from the University of North Carolina School of Dentistry, provided expert oral surgical services to a population suffering with chronic pain and non-restorable teeth. Dental assistants; Lily Schorr, Louise Carnaby, Daphne Rennert and Blair Goldsmith all worked tirelessly to ensure that all patients had a comfortable and positive experience.
"Dave, your itinerary is impressively succinct and accurate. You have done a really good job organizing a trip that pushes the volunteers out of their comfort zone but doesn’t completely exhaust them.
The trip was the most meaningful trip of my entire life besides my first trip to Israel.
You’re a real mensch and deserve the highest rewards from Hashem for your tzedakah. I can’t tell you how impressed I am with you and your work. This isn’t the last time you’ll hear from me."
Stay in touch my friend,
Jeff G
Witness the celebration of this 94 year old Muslim patient who is pain free for the first time in over 80 years!
"Dave, your itinerary is impressively succinct and accurate. You have done a really good job organizing a trip that pushes the volunteers out of their comfort zone but doesn’t completely exhaust them.
The trip was the most meaningful trip of my entire life besides my first trip to Israel.
You’re a real mensch and deserve the highest rewards from Hashem for your tzedakah. I can’t tell you how impressed I am with you and your work. This isn’t the last time you’ll hear from me."
Stay in touch my friend,
Jeff G
Witness the celebration of this 94 year old Muslim patient who is pain free for the first time in over 80 years!
We have just returned from our October, 2015 mission. One of the pleasures we experience is having a traditional Uganda lunch prepared for us by "Iron Chef", Rachel, in the Abayudaya Guesthouse. Volunteers are always welcome. We are in need of medical doctors, pediatricians, optometrists, audiologists, dentists, dental hygienists and dental assistants for our next missions in June - July (already filled) and Oct - Nov., 2016. You don't need to be in the medical professions to volunteer.
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"Iron Chef" Rachel in the kitchen at the Abayudaya Guesthouse.
_Our mission in March of 2015, set the gold standard for patient care. With the expertise of Dr. Robert Grunstein, who limits his practice to children, we were able to provide comprehensive dental services to over 200 students at the Hadassah Primary School in addition to an endless line of adults. The sophisticated services that Dr. Grunstein offered to the children, such as pulpotomies and stainless steel crowns, are exceedingly rare in the protocols of dental missions. Mission director, Dr. David Abramowitz, likewise shared with his Uganda colleagues his proficiency in modern endodontic techniques, utilizing the Tulsa Wave One endodontic system. To our knowledge this state of the art equipment is not in the armamentarium of many other missions involved in global dental outreach. The immediate benefit was that adult teeth, which under most field conditions would have been extracted, are now able to be saved. Dr. Ivan Ssejjoba, our full time clinical partner in our dental clinic at the Tobin Health Center and an exceptionally talented exodontist, is always available to follow up on all of our patient encounters.
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"An amazing, rewarding, once in a lifetime trip."..... Dr. Robert Grunstein
Read about Dr. Grunstein's and Kayla's experience in The Standard.