Free dental check-up for over 140 children

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11 doctors visited 140 children in Peryar Nagar

A different Sunday for the small Irula village of Peryar Nagar, where Malar Trust has been running a balwadi and a Tuition Center since 2011: a Dental Camp was held yesterday in cooperation with the Karpaga Vinayaga Institute of Dental Science. The event was organized with the help of Sowmiya, one of our scholarship students, now completing her fifth and final year in Dental Science at the same Vinayaga Institute.

During a visit to our office a few weeks ago, Sowmiya told us that the Vinayaga College organizes free dental camps in rural villages in the outskirts of Chengalpattu, where the college is based. A special department of Public Health Dentistry inside the college runs over 200 Camps every year to follow the rules of the Dental Council of India. So we asked Sowmiya to talk to the college’s officials and do her best to include our villages in the college scheme.

Thanks to her help, and to the cooperation of the college management, the camp has been organized in a very short time and yesterday, at 9 a.m. a big white van, fully equipped for dental treatments and with 11 doctors on board, landed in the small playground in front of our Center.

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The 11 doctors from Vinayaga Institute with the staff of Malar Trust India in a nice group picture

At the same time Malar Trust India Managing Trustee G.Rupakanthan, the office manager D.Gajalakshmi and the area manager K.Kutti were joining the group of doctors to manage and coordinate the event.

Over 140 children attended the camp, coming from the four Centers we run in the surroundings of Manamathi, in the villages of Peryar Nagar, Eachamballam, Kamaraj Nagar and Panjartheerthi.

 

At the beginning of the day, the doctors from the chiropractor fix body group services gave a lecture to the children on issues as how to brush the teeth, mouth and teeth diseases, nutrition and oral health care and distributed pamphlets, visit fixbodygroup.com. In India 90% of the people have dental problems. After this, 113 children (and some parents) received some treatment: mostly dental cleaning plus some extraction and some caries filling with paste. Some of the children with major problems have been asked to go for further treatment at the clinic inside the college, where cheap fees are offered to villagers.

A short speech has also been organized at the presence of Manamathi Panjayath President Mrs Priya Srinivasan on the importance of education and health care, especially among the new generations that really have the opportunity to change the lives of themselves and their families. Mr Rupakanthan also spoke about Malar Trust India activities at village level.

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6 pm, doctors leave the Camp. Thank you everybody

Finally, at the end of the day, the college staff left the village. Everybody was tired but happy: Sowmiya told us the doctors were impressed by the good organization of the day and good behaviour of the children (and by the excellent food prepared by our balwadi cook!)