It started with one. One person, conversation and one dream.
And now, 15 months and many people later, it’s changed into the country’s first paediatric and special needs dental care, which was launched last week.
The unit is located at the Department of Paediatric Dentistry of the University of the Western Cape (UWC).
Dalene Swart, president of the Rotary Club of Bellville, who helped initiate the project, told the audience how she joined the club in February 2020 to make a difference in her community.
“Little did I know that I would be standing in front of you with a huge lump in my heart.”
It was Swart who used the reference to the number one, when explaining how Dr Gerald Paris, a fellow club member, brought a family member for dental treatment at UWC. Here he met Dr Craig Peck, head of Paediatric Dentistry at UWC.
And Peck told Paris of the dream to start a state-of-the-art paediatric dental facility, which would provide service, as well as training.
The Rotary Club invited them to do a presentation on the idea.
Peck, along with Dr Nicoline Potgieter, president of the South African Association of Paediatric Dentistry (SAAPD) and course coordinator for the Masters programme in Paediatric Dentistry at UWC, presented their dream to the club. “When they mentioned special needs children . . . I was like, okay, we’re doing this,” Swart said. “I have a soft spot. And here we are today.”
Raising funds
The club set to work raising funds. In the end the Rotarians raised R1,1 million which was given by clubs from the USA, one from the United Kingdom and one from Canada (Kentville, Hollis Brookline, Fair Haven, Charlottetown, Wenatchee Sunrise and Washington Forge and the Rotary Foundation). “It could not have been done by one individual. We had to collaborate.”
David Holtzhausen, former president and current treasurer of the Bellville Rotary, took the lead on the project.
The initiative was completed with further help by the Provincial Government of the Western Cape (PGWC).
Game-changer
This project is expected to increase treatment capacity in the field of Paediatric Dentistry. It will also foster disease prevention and treatment programmes, bolster healthcare systems, and in time, significantly reduce the burden of disease and need for care under general anaesthesia.
UWC trains 55% of the dental students in South Africa.
“One global grant, changing the lives of hundreds, thousands . . . maybe even millions of children.” Potgieter says expert oral health care is very important and this unit is a game-changer. “It is important to note, oral health directly impacts general health which directly impacts quality of life. It is our responsibility to provide the basic health care needs of our children. The technological advances incorporated into the unit support minimally invasive techniques and preventative dentistry and the environment is focused on making the dental visit more pleasant for the child patient. Hopefully this is the first of many dedicated paediatric and special needs units across South Africa.”
This project is scheduled for full implementation by the end of October this year.
