 Marie Braniff-Hudson is a member of a group of seven expat ladies who have been supporting orphanages in Myanmar for the last five years. Most recently they visited Pyapon - Ka Ni (Boys Orphanage of 100), Kyaik Lat (Girls Orphanage of 100) and Min-galar Parahita (Orphanage for girls and boys of 350) near Twante. Here they had the opportunity to teach oral hygiene to the children, as well as support them with funds for Educational support through the Mandalay Projects.
 Smilefocus was very pleased to support their endeavour and supplied various dental products and toothbrushes for the children to use and keep. Marie provided the oral hygiene instruction.
More information about the orphanages can be found on www.themandalayprojects.net.
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Dr Jon Ryder has long been committed to helping orphans in Cambodia. Recently, with the assistance of Smilefocus and his colleagues, Dr Ryder created a smile for one young boy who had not smiled for a very long time.
 Kimhak Sau is 13 years old and has not seen his abusive father since he was very little, when his father left him with his aunt in the slums. Too poor to look after her nephew, his aunt found a place for him with The Imagine Cambodia Foundation.
“I first met Kimhak in July 2008 at the half-way house for street children run by Imagine in Siem Reap, Cambodia. He was small and shy, and would not smile or look me in the eye. He was wearing a shirt two sizes too big with pants two sizes too small. The director of the Centre told me his history through a translator. “Despite his hard life Kimhak is grateful that he now has a chance to go to school and has a family. For Kimhak, and others like him, school means life. He never felt like anyone cared about him or loved him until he came to live at Imagine”. Now in fifth grade, Kimhak is just like any other kid his age – he likes art, computers, video games, football and pizza.
 Kimhak never smiled because his four front teeth were severely decayed. He also had gum swelling from a chronic infection and severe pain. His problems stemmed from the fact that when he lived with his aunt he ate candy sticks several times a day as they were cheap to obtain and readily available.
Because eliminating the infections and restoring his teeth would require complex and expensive treatment, Dr Ryder brought him to Singapore for treatment. Over four days Kimhak spent almost 8 hours in the dental chair. He needed 5 root canals (between 1 and 3 canals per tooth), 4 crowns with foundations and 5 fillings. His teeth were thoroughly cleaned and he was taught how how to brush and floss.
 It was a team effort - Dr. Leroy McCully, endodontist, completed the very complex root canal treatment for which he needed to use his endodontic microscope, and Dr Ryder’s wife Theary provided the translation throughout the procedures, as well as the oral hygiene instruction.
During the treatment, Kimhak was very brave and amazingly he never complained, nor made any sound. When all was done, we finally saw the smile we had been waiting for. Kimhak has aspirations to be an eye doctor. With his favourite subject being math and great enthusiasm for people and caring, and now with his new smile, Kimhak is off to a good start.
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| Dr McCully and Dr Ryder flank the smiling patient! |
The Imagine Cambodia Foundation is a registered Cambodian non-governmental, non-profit organization, based in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It provides financial and human resource support to Cambodia’s homeless and orphaned children as well as local community projects. One key way it does this is through its own project, the Imagine Foundation Children’s Center (IFCC).
The Centre provides room, board, clothing, school and supplemental education for orphans, street children and vulnerable children of Cambodia. IFCC offers children, who would otherwise have few options in life, the opportunity to change their future. Through the stimulation of educational play, love, attention and compassion, IFCC cultivates dreams and helps children realize what would before only have been imagined.
In Singapore please contact:
Dr. Jon Ryder, Chairman
drryder@mac.com
+65 9837-9091
In Australia please contact:
Mr. Peter Joyce, Vice Chairman
peter.joyce@beacon-is.com
+61-3-98890547
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Anna Robison and her mother are patients of Smilefocus. A student at Singapore American School, for her service project this year Anna was collecting toothbrushes for the Sumba Foundation. The Sumba Foundation is an organization committed to lessening the consequences of poverty on the Indonesian island of Sumba. Smilefocus was happy to give Anna a large donation of toothbrushes, toothpaste and mouth rinse.
Why Sumba? Two years ago Anna went to Sumba with the school to paint a wall in a local school and to give sports equipment to the children. The conditions she saw then inspired her to want to do more to help these children and their families.
The Sumba Foundation provides humanitarian aid by fostering village-based projects that impact health, education, water and income-generation. At the same time it preserves and respects the fragile culture and traditions of the Sumbanese people. Some key highlights of their work to date includes the building and staffing of five health clinics, the development of more than 40 water wells and supplying eight primary schools with water, toilets, tables, books and other supplies.
To learn more about the Sumba Foundation, check out their website: www.sumbafoundation.org
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