Hope Smiles Uganda - COVID-19 Crisis Update

Hope Smiles Uganda (www.hopesmiles.org/uganda) develops leaders who transform lives through quality, compassionate dental care in previously unreached communities. Our team sustainably replaces the pain and shame associated with the untreated dental disease with joy, hope, and confidence. With only 200 dentists – mainly concentrated in Kampala – serving the 43 million people in Uganda, our dental clinics are the only option for relief and freedom from dental problems for millions of Ugandans. Maintaining our operations during the COVID-19 crisis is critical for our community – without Hope Smiles, the 8 million residents of the Eastern Region would have no access to quality dental care.The stresses encountered with COVID-19 related lockdown are exemplified by one of our patients from the first week of April – Gloria. Gloria would normally travel from her home to Hope Smiles in Jinja via public transport. With public transport shut down, she had to ride her bike 30 km to experience relief from pain that had been keeping her awake nightly. Oh, and Gloria is 7 months pregnant!Gloria’s story of desperately seeking relief from pain is all too common.As a result, we have started using our Outreach van as a “dental ambulance” (approved by the government to move on the roads) to start picking people up when they have dental emergencies. This allows our team to provide relief to those who are suffering.Team members not directly involved in patient care are contributing to our mission in two ways: by making hand sanitizer for distribution in the community AND by calling our over 15,000 patients of record to make sure they are doing well!

Urgent Needs

The COVID-19 related lockdown has created three acute challenges for Hope Smiles. First, transportation has become very difficult for our team and patients. Public transport – the main means of transport for the overwhelming majority of our patients -- has been shut down since March 25. Private cars have been banned from the roads since April 1.The second challenge flows directly from the first. The limits on transportation have limited the ability of our patients to travel to Hope Smiles. This has dramatically reduced our patient flow and income, thereby forcing us to use our “emergency” funds to pay our team members. Our team is locally-led – we have 28 Ugandan dental professionals leading this revolution in health care!Third, we need to spend more on Personal Protective Equipment – we now purchase face shields for all of our dental professionals AND standard face masks and gloves have increased in price.

Thank You For Your Prayers & Support

You have a chance to join the Hope Smiles Uganda team in COVID-19 response by investing in the continued development of our leaders AND transforming lives through quality, compassionate dental care. Together, we can weather the COVID-19 crisis – and come out stronger on the other end!YOU can relieve the pain of the Hope Smiles team – who relieves the pain of Ugandans every day!We have 3 goals:
  1. Raise $9,300  CAD to pay the salaries of our team members for one month. This will give our team the ability to transition without skipping a beat as the lockdown is lifted!

  1. Purchase 250 face shields by donating 500 CAD! This will protect our team members working on the front lines!

  1. Donate 500 CAD to help offset costs from the Hope Smiles “dental ambulance” providing relief during the COVID-19 Crisis!

THANK YOU for your generosity. Your support directly empowers the Hope Smiles Uganda team to transform lives!PC9icj4=Learn More About Our MinistryPC9icj4=PC9icj4=PC9icj4=

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