What Others Are Saying > In the News
New Times - US Volunteers to Boost Dental Health
December 13, 2011
An American charitable dental organisation is planning a trip to Rwanda, in February next year, to educate
children, teachers, nurses and community health workers about oral healthcare practices, good nutrition and tooth
decay prevention.
Dental hygienist volunteers from Rural Rwanda Dental (RRD), an affiliate of the American Dental Association
(ADA), have previously offered local health workers basic skills on periodontal care at Kigali Health Institute
(KHI).
Dr. Ibra Muhumuza, the Head of Department of Dentistry in KHI told The New Times on Sunday that the
volunteers bring a crucial element in dentistry that is lacking in the country.
Dr. Muhumuza said: ³Their services are not offered here in Rwanda because we lack dental hygienists. We have
specialists or dental surgeons, general practitioners and dental therapists but no dental hygienists.´
³What they bring is very important in terms of preventive dentistry. They give us an extra skill in terms of the
preventive care that we lack.´
According to Dr. Muhumuza, the US team offers important capacity building in terms of mentorship and training of
locals.
A dental hygienist (also called oral hygienist) is a licenced dental professional who specialises in preventive oral
health, typically focusing on techniques in oral hygiene.
A 2012 itinerary on the RRD website indicates that the team will arrive in Kigali on February 4, conduct training at
KHI from February 6 – 10 and travel to community outreach sites from February 11 – 12.
Their website says the volunteers will visit village schools to teach oral health prevention techniques; apply sealants
and fluoride varnish; and perform atraumatic restorative treatments as needed.
“The government [Rwanda government] has responded by training thousands of community health workers and
building hundreds of community health centres, but there isn¶t a large focus on oral health right now,” Dr. Richard
Reckmeyer, the RRD executive director is quoted as saying.
Founded in 2009, the RRD made a mission trip to Rwanda in 2010.
The volunteers mostly taught and carried out extractions.
Reckmeyer says: “So we wanted to develop a sustainable education programme that would focus on teaching
children and health care workers the importance of prevention and oral health care. The key words in our
programme are µsustainable¶ and µeducation.¶ We also wanted to make sure the programme was culturally
appropriate and affordable.”
It is noted that when Reckmeyer applied for a grant to support the mission, his organisation's programme caught
the attention of Henry Schein Cares, the global social responsibility programme of Henry Schein Inc.
RRD was, last month, selected as a beneficiary of the HSC Global Production Donation Programme, and will
receive thousands of dollars¶ worth of health care supplies for use in Rwanda.
“The generous donation will support our community outreach where we place sealants and ARTs; apply fluoride
varnish; distribute toothbrushes; and train community health workers, Rwandan dental therapists, nurses and
teachers to educate children and families in rural Rwanda about oral health and nutrition,” Reckmeyer said.
ADA News - Mission Trip to Rwanda Will Focus On Education
December 7, 2011
Peoria, Ariz.—In an effort to fill the gap that still remains in Rwanda because of the 1994 genocide, a charitable dental organization is planning a mission trip that will focus on educating children, teachers, nurses and community health workers about oral health care practices, good nutrition and tooth decay prevention.
Rural Rwanda Dental volunteers in February 2012 will visit village schools to teach oral health prevention techniques; apply sealants and fluoride varnish; and perform atraumatic restorative treatments as needed.
“The health care infrastructure in Rwanda was decimated by the genocide,” said Dr. Richard Reckmeyer, RRD executive director. “The government has responded by training thousands of community health workers and building hundreds of community health centers, but there isn’t a large focus on oral health right now.”
RRD, founded in 2009, made a mission trip to Rwanda in 2010, and volunteers found themselves mostly performing and teaching how to perform extractions, he added. “So we wanted to develop a sustainable education program that would focus on teaching children and health care workers the importance of prevention and oral health care. The key words in our program are ‘sustainable’ and ‘education.’ We also wanted to make sure the program was culturally appropriate and affordable.”
When Dr. Reckmeyer applied for a grant to support the mission, his organization’s program caught the attention of Henry Schein Cares, the global social responsibility program of Henry Schein Inc. RRD was selected last month as a recipient in the HSC Global Production Donation Program, and will receive thousands of dollars’ worth of health care supplies to use in Rwanda.
“The generous donation will support our community outreach where we place sealants and ARTs; apply fluoride varnish; distribute toothbrushes; and train community health workers, Rwandan dental therapists, nurses and teachers to educate children and families in rural Rwanda about oral health and nutrition,” said Dr. Reckmeyer.
Dr. Reckmeyer said Rural Rwanda Dental is also seeking dental professional volunteers for upcoming trips, tax-deductible donations of prevention-related supplies or money to help sustain the program.
“The more we can empower Rwandans to help themselves, the better off they will be,” he said.
For more information about Rural Rwanda Dental, visit the website:http://rrdental.org.
Visit the ADA’s International Volunteer Web page,http://internationalvolunteer.ada.org, to search for volunteer opportunities by organization, country/region, program type and more, or contact the ADA Division of Global Affairs for more information 1-312-440-2726.
Rural Rwanda Dental is Selected to Participate in Henry Schein Cares Global Product Donation Program
November 7, 2011
Rural Rwanda Dental, has been selected as a participant in the Global Product Donation Program of Henry Schein Cares, the global social responsibility program of Henry Schein, Inc., the largest provider of health care products and services to office-based practitioners. Henry Schein Cares helps to expand access to health care for underserved populations around the world by supporting initiatives in the following areas: wellness, treatment, and prevention; emergency preparedness and relief; and building capacity in the training of health professionals and institutions.
Through the Henry Schein Cares Global Product Donation Program, the Company donates medical, dental and animal health supplies to community-based health professionals and their organizations. As a recipient of the program, Rural Rwanda Dental will receive a broad selection of health care products and supplies, valued between $5,000 and $25,000, throughout the course of the two-year program cycle. The grant will enable Rural Rwanda Dental to more effectively carry out its mission to develop and evaluate a culturally-appropriate, accessible, and affordable intervention to reduce tooth decay and improve the nutrition, growth and overall health and well-being of young children in rural Rwanda.
Edmund Kagire
Kagame receives US health professionals
Friday, May 13, 2011
KIGALI - President Paul Kagame yesterday hosted a delegation of 38 people from leading universities in the United States, led by Ira Magaziner, the co-founder of Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI).
The delegation, from 16 top medical, nursing and health management schools, is in the country to create a partnership with the Ministry of Health. Dr. Drew Cahoon represented Rural Rwanda Dental.
Speaking to reporters after meeting the President, Magaziner said that they would work with their Rwandan colleagues to offer world class training.
“They have met about 55 of their Rwandan colleagues involved in medical education in universities and hospitals and they have planned the programme. By the end of seven years, Rwanda will have a world class health education system,” Magaziner said.
Magaziner, who co-founded CHAI with former US President Bill Clinton, said that the group had paid a courtesy call on the Head of State to brief him on the programme and seek his opinion and advice.
He noted that the programme is in line with the vision President Kagame shares with Clinton - to build a quality, world class healthcare system in Rwanda.
“The need is also to develop a base of highly educated people that can lead to the creation of research in health industries and the health economy of Rwanda, that is what we are working on with the leadership of the Ministry of Health,” Magaziner said.
The group will focus on several areas of specialty such as dentistry, nursing, obstetrics, paediatrics and many others providing diverse expertise.
“We are canvassing more support to this programme because once we come together, the vision that President Kagame has given us, of accelerating Rwanda into a middle income country will be achieved,” Prof. Patrick Kyamanywa, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the National University of Rwanda (NUR),said.
“We have to improve the products of our higher learning institutions and medicine is the most urgent of these”.
He noted that Rwanda was able to attract the experts from leading US universities because of its vision to build a quality, vibrant world class health and medical science system for the country.
“With these universities around and the discussions we are holding with them, I think we are going to come up with very concrete ways of trying to achieve this world class education as regards medical sciences,” Kyamanywa added.The programme is expected to kick off in a year.
The representatives were drawn from Harvard, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Duke, Virginia, Colorado, Texas and Maryland universities as well as leading nursing schools.
Kathy Fitzgerald
Manager, Volunteer Staffing, Children's Dental Clinic
Dr. Richard Reckmeyer, Dr. Larry Warren and Dr. Marcus Gottieb are a noteworthy team in many ways!
The professionalism, dedication, courage and wide range of knowledge they have is going to lead them
into an unbelievable venture in their lives. They all have a long history of volunteerism, be it dental
services, church activities, community service or teaching. Life experiences have prepared them for their upcoming journey to Rwanda. To organize and provide desperately needed services is an outstanding aspiration and itcouldn’t be in better hands.
The John C. Lincoln Health Network Desert Mission Dental Clinic has been in existence for over 80 years. It depends heavily on the generosity of dental professional s volunteering their time to provide services. From general dentists, specialists, hygienists, assistants and recruiters, they are the individuals who are the driving force behind the clinic.
Eight years ago I met Dr. Richard Reckmeyer. We worked together on the recruitment of volunteer dentists, hygienists and assistants for the Desert Mission Children’s Dental Clinic. And he has increased our volunteers by 50%. I can tell you from personal experience, he is a person of action!
When he told me recently he had been traveling in Rwanda, seeing the sights and visiting gorillas I was excited and impressed. A short time later he shared with me that he was interested in setting up a dental program there, I actually thought he meant performing dentistry on gorillas. I gave him the name of a veterinarian dentist that I was acquainted with. When he told me it was “human dentistry” he was interested in, then I knew he was really serious! I knew of a husband and wife team, Jerry and Mikell Denning, who had done just that very thing in Kenya. I gave Dr. Reckmeyer their contact information and he took it from there! When he recruited Dr. Warren and Gottlieb, I told him “You are SO lucky.”
This is going to be “Dentists in the Mist” for sure!
I have known Dr. Larry Warren for over 25 years. He is a huge part of the reason I work for Desert Mission Children’s Dental Clinic of John C. Lincoln Health Network because he assisted in hiring me 25 years ago! I am certainly glad he made that decision! Larry says “I guess it was a good hire.”
After 2-3 years of recruiting Dr. Marcus Gottlieb by Dr. Reckmeyer, Dr. Gottlieb contacted me about a year ago interested in volunteering his services at the clinic. He came to volunteer and he immediately fit in. He enjoys the children we see and is so gentle with them. He has gone on several dental missions and has shared stories of adventures and experiences that would make a great book!
I know this dynamic team is going to set an example for the world in their upcoming venture. Rwandan teeth will never be the same! Maybe someday, it will be gorilla dental care too!
University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Dentistry
Spring, 2010 [ Download PDF version of this article ]
COD alum falls in love with Rwanda,
returns to teach basic dental care
On an African safari in 2006,
Dr. Richard T. Reckmeyer
traveled through Tanzania
and Kenya and set out to
trek for gorillas in Rwanda.
But even before he reached
the gorillas, he says, he fell
in love with the country, its
leaders, and its people.
He first noticed the impeccably clean
roads. A guide told him that plasticshad been outlawed and that one day a
month citizens, including the country’s
president, pick up roadside trash. He
said he also noticed the hopefulness
of the people, especially the women
and children, despite widespread
poverty and the horror of genocide.
Since that first visit, Reckmeyer, a
retired Phoenix, AZ, dentist and a
1979 graduate of the UNMC College
of Dentistry, has returned to Rwanda
four times. He is planning a fifth trip
in June when he hopes to conduct a
three-week program to teach nurses
and community health workers how
to deliver basic dental services.
“Because the entire health infrastructure
was destroyed during the 1994 genocide,
when 1 million people were killed
in 100 days, the supply is scarce and
the demand is astronomical for rural
oral health care,” Reckmeyer said. “You
get to the age when you want to give
back,” he said, “and it can be here in the
United States, or it can be in Rwanda.”
Reckmeyer’s goal is to teach nurses
in community health centers to perform
simple extractions, complete
basic cleanings, and train community
health workers to teach prevention.
He plans to work with public schools
and Home Based Management Care,
which is provided by the government.
The first training will be offered at the
Ruhengeri Hospital in the Musanze
District of the Northern Province. It will
cover health histories, oral examinations,
dental anatomy of baby and permanent
teeth, sterilization, prevention,
cleaning techniques with oral hygiene
instruction, injections, and simple extractions.
His five-year goal is to have all
750 nurses trained in all 375 districts.
Reckmeyer, who retired in 2001 because of
disability after three rotator cuff surgeries
in one year, outlined his plan in October to
students, faculty, and administrators at the
College of Dentistry. He said he needs help
from volunteer dentists, hygienists, and
students, as well as donations of money,
instruments, and supplies. He could use
scalers, curettes, elevators, and forceps.
Reckmeyer based his training course on
the Kenya Medical Mission conducted for
six years in rural Kenya by two Phoenix
dentists and their wives—Dr. Jerry Denning,
and his wife, Mikell, a hygienist, and Dr.
Wilson Lathrop and his wife, Bonnie. To
develop his course, Reckmeyer, who also
has a MBA and has taught at community
colleges, met with faculty, administration,
and students at Kigali Health Institute—the
only dental education facility in Rwanda—
and other government and health officials.
The ratio of oral health care providers
to the population in Rwanda was 155
providers to 10.5 million people, as of
March 2009, and most of the providers
worked in urban areas, Reckmeyer said.
In two districts he surveyed, between
92 percent and 95 percent of the oral
health care needs amounted to simple
extractions and basic cleanings. Simple
extractions were the second most common
service provided in community health
centers in a third district surveyed.
To volunteer or donate money or supplies,
contact Reckmeyer at (623) 979-7555
or richard.reckmeyer@cox.net. Learn
more at his Web site at http://www.rrdental.org.
University of Nebraska at Omaha College of Masters of Business Administration
Summer, 2010 [ Download PDF Version of this Article ]
On a 2006 safari to find the
gorillas of Rwanda, Dr.
Richard T. Reckmeyer
instead found a new mission -
caring for the people of that impoverished
and genocide-ravished country.
A retired Phoenix dentist and UNO MBA
graduate, Reckmeyer this June is making his
fifth trip to Rwanda, where he is conducting
a three-week program to teach nurses and
community health workers how to deliver
basic dental services.
“Because the entire health infrastructure
was destroyed during the 1994 genocide,
when 1 million people were killed in 100
days, the supply is scarce and the demand is astronomical for rural oral health
care,” Reckmeyer says.
He plans to work with public schools and Home Based Management Care, provided
by the government. The first training was to be offered at the Ruhengeri Hospital
in the Musanze District of the Northern Province. It will cover health histories,
oral examinations, dental anatomy of baby and permanent teeth, sterilization,
prevention, cleaning techniques with oral hygiene instruction, injections, and
simple extractions.
Reckmeyer’s five-year goal is to have all 750 nurses trained in 375 districts. But
the Phoenix dentist, who retired in 2001 because of disability after three rotator
cuff surgeries in one year, can’t do it alone.
He is seeking help from volunteer dentists, hygienists and students, and donations of
money, instruments and supplies (especially scalers, curettes, elevators and forceps).
Story modified from article originally published in
Cornhusker Impressions, UNMC College of Dentistry.
To help, contact Reckmeyer at (623) 979-7555 or richard.reckmeyer@cox.net. Learn more at Rural Rwanda Dental, www.rrdental.org.
Oral Health Care Project in the Works
for Rwanda
California Dental Association -
November, 2009
[ Download PDF version of this article ]
A dentist in Arizona is looking
for adventurous and caring dental professionals
for an outreach project in Rwanda.
Having completed a feasibility study
on a successful model in Kenya, Richard T.
Reckmeyer, DDS, MBA, would like to take
the project west to help meet the demand
for oral health care in Rwanda.
Reckmeyer met with Kigali Health
Institute faculty, students and administrators.
(The school is Rwanda’s only dental
facility.) He also met with other governmental
officials and administrators of
nearly a dozen community health centers
in Musanze District as part of his feasibility
study. The results were eye-opening.
Following the 1994 genocide, in which 1
million people were killed in 100 days, oral
health care is in high demand but scarce.
Some of the statistics, according to a
press release:
• The ratio of oral health care providers
to the total population of Rwanda is
155/10.5 million.
• Simple extractions are the second
most common service (second to lower
respiratory disease) in the community
health centers in Gakenke District,
Northern Province, Rwanda.
• For 987 patients, 95.5 percent of
the oral health care needs in Nyabihu
District, Northern Province, Rwanda, are
simple extractions and basic cleanings.
Dental professionals and students
interested in a life-changing experience
can contact Richard T. Reckmeyer, DDS,
MBA, by clicking here.
Kagame demands results from local gov’t officials
Wednesday, 10th February 2010
RUBAVU - President Paul Kagame yesterday told Local Government leaders that he is only interested in results on the ground and not meetings, adding that ‘meetings and retreats’ are not an end in themselves but rather a means to an end.
While officiating at the closing of a three-day Local Government retreat, President Kagame, wielding a 6-page document containing resolutions of the last five retreats, said that it is becoming common for leaders to go into meetings and come up with recommendations which are never implemented. The retreat was aimed at assessing persistent challenges in local governance, identify solutions and find ways of speeding up implementation of strategic priorities.
Thursday, 11th February 2010
Ruhengeri Hospital to get major facelift
By Bonny Mukombozi
MUSANZE - The Minister of Health, Dr Richard Sezibera, has said Ruhengeri Hospital in the Northern Province will be upgraded to become a regional referral facility, well-equipped to handle more patients.
The Minister disclosed this after visiting the hospital, where he met health workers.
He added that specialists, nurses, hospital equipment and the budget will be increased in order to accommodate the surging number of patients’.
Ruhengeri Hospital which has 17 medical doctors and receives over 150 patients per day, according to hospital sources.
It only has two ambulances, and lacks enough medical equipment to handle a big number of patients referred from district health centres.
“The hospital receives patients from all over the province, yet it is considered and equipped as a district hospital. If it is upgraded, it will be in position to offer better services,’’ Dr John Karach, the hospital’s director said.
Karach said that the hospital is owed over Rwf260m through the communal health insurance scheme (Mutuelle de Sante) which is supposed to be paid by the Ministry of Health.
After meeting with the hospital staff and later with over 1,000 community health workers, Dr Sezibera noted that more efforts are needed to encourage women to deliver from the health units as a way of reducing child and maternal deaths in the area.
He challenged community health councillors to encourage men to embrace family planning practices, noting that polygamous practices have been the root cause of malnutrition, especially in rural communities.
