International Volunteers

During the last six months we have had the participation of 2 interns in our computer training program: Matt Deacon and Noman Siddiqui from the Canadian Society for International Health, and two volunteers, Maureen Perzan a Dental Student and Dr. Anoop Sayal a dentist from Canada. Thanks to their commitment and desires to help those less fortunate "Sonrisas" has been provided with relevant and useful information for the communities served, allowing the programs to be rendered more effectively and appropriately.

The activities developed for those volunteers in dental care have been focused in dental disease prevention assisting dentist in the Sonrisas Clinics and Mobile Units with task like taking impressions and X-Rays to patients, applying fluoride, polishing teeth and teaching children and adults about the importance and correct use of the toothbrush and the dental floss. In addition, educational sessions in primary health care have been organized and developed with a huge success in the Sonrisas clinics, hospitals, churches and communal centers emphasizing on important topics for the communities like family planning, nutrition and breastfeeding, general hygienic as well in awareness of preventive measures against the abuse of children and women, prevention of transmissible diseases as Dengue and HIV, interfamilial violence, juvenile delinquency and drug addiction among others.

Mobile Units

With our three mobile units, Sonrisas has been traveling around the country and providing services to communities that often have difficulties accessing dental care treatments. During the previous six months, we set up dental operatives in rural areas as El Chaparral located in Villa Mella, Licey, Barahona, Chaparral and Boca Chica, among others reaching a high pick of 1.300 patients treated per week.

CompuCom VII

The reached success of the educational programs and the necessity of empowering communities to work for their own well being, encourage us to extend our CompuCom project to some other communities with the sponsorship of the Presbyterian World Service & Development Fund.

This program which began in April of 2000, has shown a continuous growth ever since. In the first year it gave the opportunity to 12 young people of the Palmas de Herrera community in the Dominican Republic to learn computer skills with programs such as Excel, PowerPoint, Word and others. Then in February of 2001 a second project started
with the same objectives but in a different community. From this project, named CompuCom II in the community of Buenos Aires de Herrera, 23 students graduated with age ranging from 12-17 years old. The following year 32 students graduated from CompuCom III ages raging between 12-20 years old. From CompuCom IV and V in the communities of Los Alcarrizos and Calle de la Independencia, approximately 70 students graduated.

The area selected for CompuCom VII is Enriquillo community, located halfway through Km 8 in the district of Calle de Independencia, in Santo Domingo. This neighbourhood is textbook example of urban poverty in the Dominican Republic. While people are surviving, it is common that they are just scraping by and sometimes not making ends meet. Poverty is rampant in the area, and while it has not reaching the levels of extremity faced in certain outskirts of the city, it is only a matter of time before Enriquillo meets the same fate as a result of the marginalization of poor communities.

"Sonrisas" and CompuCom have been very warmly received in the Enriquillo community, currently operating out of a common public room in a local church. Many residents pitch in to help assist in cleaning and maintaining the computers and during hours when classes aren't in session they attend the facility to practice and instruct younger siblings.

The program gives children living in impoverished urban areas the opportunity to access computer skills otherwise unavailable to them. This Information Technology education covers the history of the computer, hardware composition of present day systems, and a thorough presentation of all the programs associated with Microsoft Office.

The course is designed to spark an interest in the students, who are predominately youth but include people from all walks of life. Aside from computer-related topics, there is a strong community health angle to CompuCom. It also has a social welfare agenda as well that allows the students to use their new-found computer skills to promote healthy living in their communities by composing, printing, and distributing literature and brochures on social issues.

Donations

Thanks to the help and kindness of organizations and people, especially dentist around Canada, during the year 2004, Smiles Foundation received donations of dental supplies, equipment and office furniture for a total value of $508,072.74 Canadian dollars, items that were stored in the De'Boers warehouse and sent to the Dominican Republic last December in a 40-foot container.

These donations represent such a significant help for our Sonrisas Clinics and Units, as well for our CompuCon project in the Enriquillo Community so we are deeply grateful with the Canadian society for the continuous support they give to our work in the Dominican.

Tourism

Every day there are more tourists visiting the Dominican Republic not only with the intention of having a nice vacation, a relaxing time and having fun but wishing to do something for those less fortunate.
Trying to do something about this, Smiles Foundation has a tour program which allows tourist to visit some of our clinics or a school in the Dominican Republic where they have the opportunity of living the reality of a developing country and having memorable experiences. They usually bring school or medical supplies as a donation to distribute among children while they enjoy sharing their time with these little kids and see them smile.
In their own words:

"Thank you to the staff at the Smiles Foundation for arranging the tour of Hiquey in Punta Cana on Dec. 18, 2003. My husband John and I were met by a wonderful and friendly guide named Jose and driver. The people at the Sonrisas Dental clinic gave us a tour of their facility of which you could tell they were very proud. Then one of the Clinic's supervisor took us to the school to distribute the donations we brought. We felt that we hadn't brought nearly enough school supplies as we could tell the need is very great but the smiles on the children and teacher's faces reassured us that they appreciated it.

We then went to an old age home that we thought was an orphanage. Apparently there are no orphans children without parents which is very comforting to know. The Catholic sisters at this home greatly appreciated the hygiene products as well as our visit. In both places our hearts went out to these precious people. The community donates to run this facility and it is a lovely place. The elderly were eager to shake our hands and we said Hola!"

Cheryl and John Collings

Future Projects

Finally, the major project that is taking place at the moment involves the development of an initial business plan to ensure a better financial structure for Smiles and the creation of an internet café and a new computer education school. The goal of these two projects is to generate revenue for the Foundation, especially to ensure that the CompuCom classes may continue to operate unhindered.