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Saturday, March 21, 2009

Making a Difference: In Clark County, Kentucky and Ecuador By Ruthi and Rankin Skinner


We continue to push forward with our Ecuador Dental Health Initiative. We have another 5,000 toothbrushes ready to ship and are collecting sealant material and fluoride varnish for our program. The EDHI will expand into three new communities this year. Frank Hutchins will take fluoride varnish and toothbrushes with his college group and will initiate a new dental program in the Cotacachi area and other areas where they work in Imbabura. Joe Molinaro and Kay Roberts will initiate a similar program in Molino. If we get the solar panels up and running, we also plan to send sealant material and a new curing light. I am going to train Joe and Kay to place sealants. They will in turn train someone there to do the same. Joe Molinaro has a dream of improving the dental health of all the Oriente children, one village at a time. Joe, we all share that dream!

Magdalena Herdoiza-Estevez and Isabel Estevez will start their new dental initiative at the San Gerardo Community Project in March. I am providing them will fluoride varnish and toothbrushes. If we could add new volunteers into new communities each year, our dream of better dental health for Ecuador's children could be achieved. Let's look for NEW volunteers who would be willing to support a community project with visits and materials and/or financial support.

The Clark County Dental Health Initiative is now fully funded by the Clark County Community Foundation and well under way. Over 6,000 toothbrushes and fluoride toothpaste has been delivered to every child in the school system. On November 6, 2008, all the Clark County dentists and their staffs and other volunteers went to each of the individual grade schools and placed the new fluoride varnish with ACP. All 3,000 children from Head Start through the 5th grade received the treatment. We will return in April for the second application. We are doing a decayed, missing, filled study on the 6th graders. We will repeat the study each year to measure our success .

If you would like to adopt a community in Ecuador and provide them with fluoride varnish, sealant material/curing light and toothbrushes, please become a Kentucky/Ecuador Partner's volunteer. The rewards are beyond measure. Please contact for more info: Ms. Kay Roberts

1 comment:

Ming Tung said...

My admiration and salute to Skinners, collegues and the team for their selfless devotion to and work for needed children.

About Kentucky Ecuador Partners

Kentucky Partners of the Americas (a chapter of Partners of the Americas) has enjoyed a partnership with Ecuador since 1965. (Currently, Kentucky works with areas of Ecuador including Quito, Santo Domingo de los Colorados, and the Amazon Basin. Kentucky-Ecuador Partners has been one of the most progressive and most productive partnerships. The Kentucky chapter is supported by volunteers from most regions of the Commonwealth. Members are located in Winchester, Lexington, Louisville, Murray, Richmond, Whitesburg, Danville, Frankfort, Bowling Green, and other cities.