Afghanistan Dental Relief Project Mission Statement-The Afghanistan Dental Relief Project is a NON-PROFIT Organization established to provide dental treatment facilities in underserved areas of Afghanistan, to staff these facilities with volunteers, to train the Afghan people in dentistry and dental technology, to provide dental treatment at no cost to the needy, and to provide instruction in methods of preventative dental care. The whole of Afghanistan is basically without dental care. Almost thirty years of war has destroyed the technical infrastructure there, eliminating many of the essentials for basic living: reliable water, electricity, telephone service, public transportation, refrigeration, decent roads, sanitation…….leaving the people to survive as best they can. Years of civil war killed so many parents that the orphan population comprises almost ten percent of the total population. Years of successive drought conditions have made it impossible to grow self-sustaining crops to provide food, and many able-bodied men must leave their families to work as laborers in foreign countries to feed their children. Yet everywhere in Afghanistan, you see the hard-working people courageously trying to make their way against these odds to make their lives better.Our goal is to help them by addressing the almost-total lack of professional dental care in Afghanistan. We are working to establish permanent dental centers in underserved areas. Most of the people seeking services in these centers will never have seen a dentist or have received dental treatment. Dealing with patients who have no dental treatment exposure, volunteer dentists are experiencing that these people have complex problems with their teeth that come from a whole lifetime of cumulative lack of professional care……they have never had their teeth cleaned or had cavities treated in time to prevent serious problems from developing. Within each person’s mouth, serious conditions exist which undoubtedly cause the person serious pain and certainly affect their overall health, so much so that it is necessary to triage these conditions in order to treat the worst problem first. With almost thirty million people without basic dental care, any dental treatment facility is easily overwhelmed by the incredible demand for services. According to the American Dental Association, there are no volunteer facilities established currently in Afghanistan, even though many American dentists are eager to go there, at their own expense, to volunteer their help.We are dedicated to overcome the obstacles preventing these people from having access to professional dental care. Used equipment is being donated by practicing dentists in the United States which is being crated and shipped by sea to be used in facilities throughout Afghanistan. Networks of Afghani volunteers are being established to organize housing and supportive services for volunteer dental health workers who are going there to do this work. Dental equipment and supplies are being donated by manufacturers and distributors for use in the treatment facilities. Dental technology textbooks are being purchased to educate the orphaned boys in basic sciences so that they might someday be trained to provide dental care in some way themselves, and perhaps a dental training facility could be established that would give precedence to the orphans, both giving them a future and helping solve the long-term needs of the country.You can be a part of this valuable work. Your tax-deductible donation will be used exclusively to support the establishment and operation of these centers, as all volunteers pay their own expenses. If you would like to help in some way, please access our website and give us information about yourself. Together, we can bring this meaningful and necessary service to these deserving people.Please visit :www.adrpinc.org
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