Caption: Namotu Island Resort Managing Director, Scott O’Connor (in blue vest) is joined by Fiji Dental and Medical Foundation Doctors (from Left to Right); Greg Herd, Mark Brown and Denise Silva at the Solevu village Hall, where the clinics are being conducted. Photo: JOSEPHINE NAVULA.
By JOSEPHINE NAVULA
More than 300 villagers have been treated so far as part of a free dental clinics conducted by doctors from USA in partnership with Fiji Dental and Medical Foundation (a philanthropic arm of Namotu Island Blue Water Surf Resort) at Solevu village in Malolo Island, yesterday.
Malolo Island chief, the Turaga na Tui Lawa, Ratu Sevanaia Vatunitu, who also got a full set of teeth done by the medical team said the services has been a great help to the village.
“The arrival of this medical team has been such a huge blessing to the people of the village because now we don’t have to waste our money to go right to Nadi and Lautoka, when they are doing it here with much greater services for free,” he said.
Speaking to The Jet Newspaper, Dr Greg Herd said they have brought their own equipments to serve the people of the village.
“We have brought a team of four doctors and two hygienists, with our own supplies and equipments to treat the people of this village for tooth infection and dental disease,” he said.
Herd said they are taking down health histories of the people being examined and reporting back to mainland.
“With the number of people we have examined throughout the four days, we’ve done approximately 1200 procedures on them,” he said.
Fiji TV News Reporter, Maciu Bolaitamana getting his tooth examined by Dr Greg Herd. Photo: JOSEPHINE NAVULA.
Herd also said that this has been an amazing experience for him and the team, and they are very thankful to the Ministry of Education.
“We are very grateful to be given the opportunity to come to Fiji,” he said
Dental Hygienist, Denise Silva, said they have been preparing for this day with a lot of effort.
“It took us two years to prepare for this as we did a lot of fundraising, and generous people from the United States were happy to give to the Fijians,” she said.
Silva also said they have been doing a lot of activities with the school students in the village.
“We have done home care education for the young students on how to take care of their teeth,” she said.
It is a weeklong dental clinic and they plan to return next year with a lot more specified doctors.
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