The Health Education and Wellness Rotarian Action Group can assist clubs with organizing effective and sustainable health fairs as well as provide resources for creating or enhancing health education programs. You’ll hear project updates from three continents, learn about opportunities to participate, and have a chance to share your own ideas for improving health education in your community. Moderator: Karl Diekman, District 5160 Rotary Foundation Chair and Past District Governor, Rotary Club of Woodland, California, USA

1. 2015 ROTARY INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION
Successful and Effective Strategies
and Resources for Health Education
Projects and Community Health Fairs
Monday, 8 June, 2015

2. 2015 ROTARY INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION
Moderator: PDG Karl Diekman, D5160
Panelists: PDG Laura Day. D 5160
PDG Jane Little, D 5010
Past Assistant Governor Jeff Bamford, D 9212
Past Assistant Governor Sheila Hurst, D5160

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What are Rotarian Action Groups?
Rotarian Action Groups can act as
Volunteer Consultants for Rotary
Clubs and Districts.
Their role is to enhance the work of
Rotary Clubs and Districts in their
area of expertise.
RAG for Population and Development

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WHFRAG is now HEWRAG
World Health Fairs Rotarian Action Group
combined with Kenya Smiles
to form the
Health Education & Wellness
Rotarian Action Group

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What’s unique about HEWRAG?
Health Education & Wellness
Rotarian Action Group

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HOMER, ALASKA HEALTH FAIR

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YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, RUSSIA HEALTH
FAIR

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MERIDA HEALTH FAIR EXHIBITS

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CHINA HEALTH FAIR POSTERS

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MYANMAR MEDICAL MISSION TEAM 2015

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MYANMAR HEALTH FAIR PHYSICIANS
COUNSELING PATIENTS

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MYANMAR HEALTH FAIR DENTAL CLINIC

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A Model Program for Improving
Children’s Oral Health in
Kenya, East Africa, & Beyond
A GLOBAL GRANT PROGRAM
of
Districts 5160 (North Central California),
9212 (Kenya), &
6150 (Central & NE Arkansas)
KENYA SMILES

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The Rotarian, February 2014
prepare traditional grain- and
produce-based meals. Team
member Jim Green, a member
of the Rotary Club of West
Calaveras, Calif., expects that
the 12-hour days the group
spent in the field will pay divi-
dends as mothers instill good
habits in their children. “No
mother in the world wants any-
thing but good things for her
children,” Green says.
The educational compo-
nent is what sets Kenya Smiles
apart from many other dental
projects, says team member
Maureen Valley, an ortho-
dontist on the faculty of the
University of the Pacific in
San Francisco. Some tradi-
tional dental missions tally
success by teeth drilled and
extracted, she notes.“There’s
been so little attention to
attacking the root cause with
education and intervention.”
Peter DuBois, executive
director of the California Den-
tal Association,concurs:“This
program is working with the
dental community in Kenya to
enhance the oral health of the
Kenyan population” by lever-
aging the resources of Rotary,
governmental, and medical
leaders. “I have never seen a
program quite like it.”
DuBois, whose 25,000-
member organization serves
a state with roughly the same
populationasKenya’s,arranged
meetings with dental profes-
sionals for the Kenyan VTT
delegation and brought the
team members to the floor
of the California State Assem-
bly,wheretheywererecognized
by lawmakers.
The project is good news in
a place where “the only thing
they can do is extract teeth,”
says Jeff Bamford, past Kenya
country chair and charter pres-
ident of the Rotary Club of
Karen-Nairobi.
“Yes,we need more dentists
and more mobile facilities,”
Bamford continues,“but right
at the beginning, we need to
make sure that tooth decay
happens as little as possible.”
He is heartened that the proj-
ect’s biggest evangelists have
been the children themselves.
“I see the kids with great big
smiles on their faces. When
we talk to them, they’re so
juiced about it.We can see the
knowledge spread from one
grade to another.”
– BRAD WEBBER
UP FRONT
In July, 5,000 children in Kenya received backpacks filled with items such as toothbrushes, toothpaste,
and collapsible cups. The Kenya Smiles project also funds education for mothers and helps train local dentists.
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F
ewer than 1,000 dentists
serve the 44 million peo-
ple of Kenya, from the far
reaches of the bush to Nai-
robi’s vast Kibera slum. Den-
tal hygiene is a rarity outside
privileged urban regions.“In
most rural areas, people have
to travel long distances to see
a dentist, ” says Stephen
Irungu, chief dental officer at
Kenya’s Ministry of Health
and past president of the Ro-
tary Club of Murang’a.“Most
of the patients will go to the
dental clinic only because they
have pain.”
Cultural norms suggest that
“it’s OK if your teeth fall out,
if your teeth are broken.They
think people are not going to
die from it,” says Past District
Governor Geeta Manek.
Those perceptions belie
the fact that tooth decay is
the most common chronic
disease of childhood and a
harbinger of health woes in
later years, says Karen Sokal-
Gutierrez, a physician trained
in pediatrics,preventive medi-
cine, and public health with
the Joint Medical Program of
the University of California,
Berkeley, and the University
of California, San Francisco.
“We worry about AIDS and
malaria and TB among the
world’s poor, but tooth decay
is so much more common,”
she says. “Unfortunately, it’s
always been neglected,” even
as processed and sugared
foods proliferate in develop-
ing nations.
Enter Kenya Smiles,a proj-
ect created by Sheila Hurst,
an educational consultant and
member of the Rotary Club
of Redding West, Calif., and
Laura Day, 2012-13 governor
of District 5160.The partner-
ship with the Rotary Club of
Karen-Nairobi – which also
received support from dis-
tricts 9212 (Eritrea, Ethiopia,
Kenya,and South Sudan) and
6150 (Arkansas) – was part
of a global grant that brought
a vocational training team
(VTT) of six Kenyan dentists,
including Irungu,to California
in April 2013 for meetings,
seminars, and training.
In July, 10 Americans,
including Hurst, Day, and
Sokal-Gutierrez,madethetrip
to Kenya, where they distrib-
utedfoursuitcase-sizeportable
dental operating units, educa-
tional materials, and 5,000
Rotary-blue backpacks filled
with toothbrushes,toothpaste,
and collapsible stainless-steel
cups – dubbed“magic cups”by
their young recipients. A $10
donation funded each kit.
The team demonstrated
how to use the kits with a
hippohandpuppet,anoversize
tooth and brush, and a white-
board game with magnetic
cutouts representing health-
ful and unhealthful foods and
drinks, which pupils tried to
swipe away.“The message was
‘which one is going to stick to
yourteeth?’”Hurstsays.“There
would be laughter and smiles
when the food would slide off.”
The project is also fund-
ing nutrition education for
mothers, along with locally
manufactured,energy-efficient
Jiko stoves to make it easier to
K E N YA S M I L E S
Project gets to the root of dental problems
UP FRONT
SHEILAHURST
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The Rotarian, August 2013

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Identifying the Problem
Kenya
43 million people
1,000 dentists
California
38 million people
30,000 dentists
Canada
35 million people
23,000 dentists

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Addressing the Problem
Improving the Oral Health
Of Children in Kenya
through a Sustainable,
Easily Adapted, Dental
Preventive Care Program
Kenya Smiles

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How Does It Work?
Building AWARENESS
Providing INFORMATION
Promoting EDUCATION

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5000 children were beneficiaries

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Kenya Smiles is improving children’s oral health,
www.kenyasmiles.org - 4kenyasmiles@gmail.com
and many of its strategies and techniques
can be used to create other successful projects.

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KENYA SMILES IN MYANMAR, JANUARY 2015

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MYANMAR ORAL HEALTH PROJECT

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MYANMAR MEDICAL TEAM JOINS ORAL HEALTH LESSON

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MYANMAR ORAL HEALTH PROJECT

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KENYA SMILES IN MYANMAR, JANUARY 2015

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3000 CHILDREN IN MYANMAR BENEFITTED

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For more information, please visit:
www.hewrag.org:
Health Education & Wellness Rotarian Action Group
www.kenyasmiles.org: Kenya Smiles
www.rotary.org/actiongroups: Rotarian Action Groups