Dental students reach out to Ladakh residents through ‘Amchi’ project

They did dental health screening of over 1,200 people

August 20, 2014 10:44 am | Updated 10:44 am IST - Manipal:

Some of the members of ‘Amchi’ project with students during the dental outreach programme in Ladakh. Photo: Special arrangement

Some of the members of ‘Amchi’ project with students during the dental outreach programme in Ladakh. Photo: Special arrangement

It was a new experience for the 16 interns and staff of the Manipal College of Dental Sciences (MCODS) to use their skills in Ladakh, which has freezing temperatures for about nine months a year.

Yet their spirit to do something different prompted them to take part in the dental outreach programme there from July 30 to August 11. In this endeavour, they were joined by 16 volunteers from eight other countries.

The team of 32 volunteers comprised of students, interns and doctors from nine countries – India, U.K., Sweden, Norway, Ireland, France, Romania, Japan and Croatia. After over nine months of meticulous planning, this team reached out to a number of schools in Leh town and in remote, sparsely-populated areas such as Nubra Valley, Diskit, which have poor access to healthcare facilities. The people also suffer from poor oral hygiene.

Working under the banner of ‘Amchi’ over the course of 12 days, this multidisciplinary team did dental health screening of over 1,200 people and provided treatment to over 1,100 people. It also conducted dental camp at four junior and high schools.

“We showed hand washing techniques according to the WHO guidelines and gave oral hygiene instructions. There is a tremendous scarcity of water in Ladakh as it snow clad nine months in a year,” Jakka Sabareesh, team leader and doctor at MCODS, said.

Pankhuri Jain, the deputy leader of the team, explained the new initiative taken up by them. “We recorded the Decayed, Missing, Filled index of the students at Chunlam Sa School in Leh. This record will enable collection of data and monitoring the outcome of the project over a period of time,” she said.

The team, however, had to face two main problems – that of commuting and the treacherous terrain. “The volunteers did develop mountain sickness, but then overcame that quickly as we carried medicines with us,” said Shashidhar Acharya, Head, Department of Public Health of Dentistry, MCODS.

The other volunteers from MCODS in the team were Srikanth Gadicherla, Kanishk Gupta, Soumya Jha, Mehrshad Damania, Siddharth Narayanan, Anupam Singh, Tenzin Pelki Dekeva, Mohini Nayak, Jamili Narayan, Hanan Siddiq and Dinesh Poojary.

‘Amchi’ in Ladakhi means “community medical servants.” They are individuals who are selflessly dedicated to support humanitarian projects for the welfare of the community.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.