Over the last several years our volunteer teams have ranged from 3 to 14 people. We travel in private busses or cars with a professional driver and guide/interpreter. Along the way we always build in a special tourist treat for the volunteers. This year we stayed at the spectacular Mweya Lodge in Queen Elizabeth Park where we went on a “game drive” and a boat excursion so see and photograph wildlife in their native habitat.
The highlight for me was driving off road around a huge boulder and unexpectedly coming face-to-face with a mother lion and her two cubs.
Providedental health care, ongoing disease prevention education and supplies to underserved populations.
Train local people to take responsibility for preventive education and care.
Establish self-sustaining, community enterprises that mutually benefit health and well-being.
Share the virtues and values of other cultures with each other in order to enrich all of our lives.
Develop bridges of love and understanding between us and all peoples so that we become a planet of friendly neighbors instead of fearful strangers.
Dr. Sherwin Shinn established For World Wide Smiles to alleviate suffering from dental disease and facilitate disease prevention, education and practice.
This was is in response to my personal experience in Nepal in 1990 where I witnessed that children were dying every day from infections due to abscessed teeth.
Local people had no idea what caused this condition, how to prevent it and how to treat it.
*For more details about this experience read "Saving A Life" on page 295 of my book, Confessions of a Modern Dentist
The typical volunteer is from high school age on up; anyone who has the means and time to travel for 10 days or more at a time. We tend to select people who have a good income and/or have financial backing to afford the trip, or people working part time or retired.
Many of these people are obviously dental related, but we utilize any and every skill and expertise. We've used teachers, social workers, mechanics, students doing school projects or research.
Volunteers should be willing to work hard and enjoy people of all ages and ethnicities. They need to adopt our underlying guiding philosophy of Namaste... I honor and salute the greatness and the Divinity in you, for each person.
Not to feel sorry for people who they may view as disadvantaged, but to feel reverence, honor and respect for all whom they encounter.
Feeling fortunate that they have the opportunity to be with such an amazing person from a different land and to be able to offer them something unconditionally just because we care about them.
