Caribbean Clinic Could Use Helping Hands

First came the pandemic Then a fire Jamaica dental clinic may be down, but it’s not out

“HI, PLEASE PRAY FOR US, the dental clinic that we are working out of in Jamaica for our mission had a fire overnight. We will need to change plans and do a massive cleanup today/tomorrow. The patients were already lining up, it’s terribly upsetting. We are here to serve God. Just heartbroken.”

This appeal from Dr. Maria Maranga, New York State Dental Foundation Chair, went out to colleagues, friends and family members, as she and her team tried to assess the damages incurred by a fire at the Helping Hands Clinic in Jamaica on Dec. 17, caused by a faulty fan. Volunteers were just two days into what they hoped would be a return to operation at the mission. The clinic had not been in use since the onset of the COVID pandemic, which may have been a contributing factor to the potential problem not having been noticed.

Maria Maranga, center, with fellow volunteers prior to fire, which occurred week before Christmas.

Such was the inauspicious beginning of the dental mission to the Helping Hands Clinic at St. Michel’s in Hopewell Town, St. Elizabeth’s, Jamaica. The mission is sponsored by the Christian Dental Society, Chicago, and since 1994 has been organized by Drs. James Carney and Bill Griffin. Several times each year, they bring teams of dentists, dental students, hygienists, assistants and non-dental support volunteers to serve the oral health needs of the poor.

Team members, including volunteers from the American Association of Endodontists (AAE) and dental students from Iowa, Texas A&M and Louisville, provide their clinical expertise while experiencing the joys of service to suffering people in the name of their faith. Dr. Maranga is a trustee of the American Association of Endodontists Foundation and a member of the AAE Access to Care Committee, which helped to organize this mission.

Youngster shows appreciation for return of volunteers and reopening of Helping Hands Clinic.

Last year’s mission was supported in part by the Henry Schein Cares Foundation’s International Access to Care Program.

“We cleaned the soot all day, then the pastor asked us to paint the whole clinic, so we did. Yes, that is a machete which they used to chop off the fan that had the bad electrical wire issue. Our brand-new endo equipment – toasted.”

Volunteer treats youngsters to holiday trinkets as they await turn to be seen.

This was the Foundation for Endodontics’s first international outreach trip since March 2020, so the excitement and anticipation levels were high. Among those joining Dr. Maranga were REACH members Dr. Jacob Simon, second-year resident, University of Connecticut, and Dr. Daphne Chung, second-year resident, University of California at San Francisco.

The volunteers’ hard work did not go unnoticed.

“The people came to pray for us anyway and that was our motivation to continue. They cooked us food to help out. Two pregnant women even came to wash things with basins from their houses.

Mission to Helping Hands Clinic had barely gotten going when clinic and equipment were pretty much destroyed by fire.

Seeing the people cry for the clinic was overwhelming – it gave us strength.”

With its vision “Healthy People, Healthy Environment,” the Jamaica Ministry of Health has as its focus a health system that is client-centered and which guarantees access to quality healthcare for every Jamaican, at reasonable costs, and taking into account the needs of the most vulnerable. Nearly a decade ago, the Ministry cited oral health as a priority, noting the critical link between it and a number of non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes, which is associated with heart disease, stroke, amputation, eye disease and kidney disease. At that time, the ratio of dentist-to-civilians was one-to-17,000.

In addition to problems related to natural disasters and infrastructure, the volunteers had to contend with bureaucratic red tape in order to get donated equipment and supplies.

Despite the hassle, there was a silver lining.