About the Project
Most of us have suffered from toothache at some point in our lives. It can be debilitating, relentless, and excruciating. It is something we would immediately look to address by booking an urgent visit to the dentist. But for many Syrian refugees, this is not possible. Dr. Yeung Man-chow, a volunteer doctor for the HK Red Cross who assisted at a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan last year said "no dental services were available and that medical staff could only prescribe painkillers to refugees with toothaches" [HKFP; 11 September 2015]. According to Mohamad Nahas, who founded the SAMS dental relief programs in Turkey in 2012, there are only five dentists still in Aleppo, out of some 600 to 700 practicing in Syria's largest city before the war [American Aljazeera; February 17, 2015].
The provision of free dental care is a vital service for Syrians, especially for children. In a humanitarian crisis, dental care is often not prioritized despite being a pressing medical need.
This is why I have decided to fundraise to provide dental care to Syrian refugees. I will be donating to support the SAMS Foundation which provides medical and dental healthcare relief in Syria and neighbouring nations. The SAMS Foundation has 19 dental clinics in and around Syria. Of these, 6 are in Turkey, 1 in Iran, and 1 in Latakia (port city in Syria), and they have treated 1.4 million patients. SAMS also runs a handful Syrian clinics in rebel-held parts of Aleppo governate, as well as mobile units that reach Homs, Reif Hama and Idlib. At these clinics, over 4,000 dental procedures have been performed. The dentists, all of whom are volunteers, perform a variety of procedures including fillings, extractions, root canal and oral hygiene instruction. The money raised will be used to buy medication for dental treatment, which will be brought to refugee camps by these volunteer dentists from the SAMS foundation. The more money raised, the more medication can be bought, and the more volunteer dentists the SAMS Foundation will send over, so the success of the project really depends on your generosity. Another focus of the project is prevention so donations also go to providing toothbrushes and toothpaste in refugee camps.
On July 31, 2016, I will be running the San Francisco Full Marathon. You can sponsor me for every kilometre I run while training for the marathon, or make a one-off donation. If you are interested in donating please visit the Sponsor Me page.
Please help me reach my goal of raising HKD$20,000 for the SAMS Foundation by sponsoring me. Your donation, big or small, will make a big difference to the lives of thousands of people currently suffering from dental pain with no hope of treatment. Every USD$15 gives tooth care sets to 10 Syrian refugee children, preventing painful infections.
I want others to acknowledge the importance of dental health care, which is often under-provided or simply forgotten in war-stricken countries. My "Run for Refugees" project is not just about raising money. It's about raising awareness of the lack of dental care for refugees as well. Hopefully I've achieved this through writing and speaking about the issue at hand on Facebook, at school and to reporters of a local newspaper. But if you could take a moment to share the URL of this page on social media, or by emailing to friends/family interested in contributing, it would really help raise support for this project!
Although I am slightly terrified at the thought of running 42.6km, I know that doing the race will help change the lives of even a few Syrian refugees and spread awareness about the lack of dental healthcare for their community, hopefully encouraging dentists from around the world to volunteer and give them the treatment they deserve.
Thank you for reading about my project and for your time.
Charlotte Chan :)
#runforsyria #projectrefugeesmiles
http://www.thesfmarathon.com/
http://projectrefugeesmiles.com/
http://sams-usa.net/foundation/
The provision of free dental care is a vital service for Syrians, especially for children. In a humanitarian crisis, dental care is often not prioritized despite being a pressing medical need.
This is why I have decided to fundraise to provide dental care to Syrian refugees. I will be donating to support the SAMS Foundation which provides medical and dental healthcare relief in Syria and neighbouring nations. The SAMS Foundation has 19 dental clinics in and around Syria. Of these, 6 are in Turkey, 1 in Iran, and 1 in Latakia (port city in Syria), and they have treated 1.4 million patients. SAMS also runs a handful Syrian clinics in rebel-held parts of Aleppo governate, as well as mobile units that reach Homs, Reif Hama and Idlib. At these clinics, over 4,000 dental procedures have been performed. The dentists, all of whom are volunteers, perform a variety of procedures including fillings, extractions, root canal and oral hygiene instruction. The money raised will be used to buy medication for dental treatment, which will be brought to refugee camps by these volunteer dentists from the SAMS foundation. The more money raised, the more medication can be bought, and the more volunteer dentists the SAMS Foundation will send over, so the success of the project really depends on your generosity. Another focus of the project is prevention so donations also go to providing toothbrushes and toothpaste in refugee camps.
On July 31, 2016, I will be running the San Francisco Full Marathon. You can sponsor me for every kilometre I run while training for the marathon, or make a one-off donation. If you are interested in donating please visit the Sponsor Me page.
Please help me reach my goal of raising HKD$20,000 for the SAMS Foundation by sponsoring me. Your donation, big or small, will make a big difference to the lives of thousands of people currently suffering from dental pain with no hope of treatment. Every USD$15 gives tooth care sets to 10 Syrian refugee children, preventing painful infections.
I want others to acknowledge the importance of dental health care, which is often under-provided or simply forgotten in war-stricken countries. My "Run for Refugees" project is not just about raising money. It's about raising awareness of the lack of dental care for refugees as well. Hopefully I've achieved this through writing and speaking about the issue at hand on Facebook, at school and to reporters of a local newspaper. But if you could take a moment to share the URL of this page on social media, or by emailing to friends/family interested in contributing, it would really help raise support for this project!
Although I am slightly terrified at the thought of running 42.6km, I know that doing the race will help change the lives of even a few Syrian refugees and spread awareness about the lack of dental healthcare for their community, hopefully encouraging dentists from around the world to volunteer and give them the treatment they deserve.
Thank you for reading about my project and for your time.
Charlotte Chan :)
#runforsyria #projectrefugeesmiles
http://www.thesfmarathon.com/
http://projectrefugeesmiles.com/
http://sams-usa.net/foundation/