CATEGORY 108 AUSTRALASIAN DENTIST A Swedish scholarship initiative is helping talented young Tanzanians pursue careers in dentistry and other healthcare professions. During a visit to Tanzania, we met two young dental practitioners whose education was made possible through support from the Swedish non-profit organisation Help to Help. A metal basket filled with dental instruments sits beside the treatment chair. Most of them are extraction forceps. The handwritten patient log records a familiar pattern: tooth extractions account for the majority of treatments. An extraction costs around TZS 4,000 (approximately AUD 2.30). A filling can cost four times as much, meaning that many patients simply choose to have a painful tooth removed rather than restored, if they seek dental care at all. – Most of our patients arrive very late. Here in Africa, many people only come to hospital when they are already very sick, says David Eliakim, 24, who runs the small dental clinic. His bright smile is a fitting advertisement for his profession. Yet dentists remain a scarce resource in Tanzania. Despite a population of more than 60 million people, the country has only a few hundred practising dentists, leaving vast areas with little or no access to oral healthcare. – I wanted to choose a profession that wasn’t overcrowded, David explains. There is such a huge need for dental professionals here. Like many young Tanzanians, however, David almost had to abandon his ambitions. Higher education is expensive, and without financial support many talented students are forced to discontinue their studies. His opportunity came through Help to Help, a Swedish non-profit organisation founded by Malin Cronqvist. The organisation enables companies and private donors to sponsor promising university students, helping them complete their education while also providing mentoring, leadership training and career development. – I was encouraged to apply by another student who had already received support from Help to Help, David says. Two of the organisation’s key coordinators in Tanzania are Naomi Shimba and Andrew Mwakalebela, who identify promising candidates, interview applicants and monitor students throughout their studies. We meet them at Help to Help’s office in Dar es Salaam. – Our vision is not only to provide scholarships, Naomi explains. We want to offer a complete support package for talented young people. We also try to match our scholarships with the country’s labour market needs – whether that’s engineers, nurses, medical doctors, dentists or teachers. – And we work hard to maintain gender balance among our scholarship recipients, Andrew adds. Another beneficiary is Witho Kawogo, whom we meet at his modest Goa Dental Clinic in the regional city of Morogoro. – I became interested in dentistry because there were so few dentists in Tanzania, he says. In many rural communities there are hardly any dental professionals at all. As qualified oral healthcare providers, both David and Witho are in high demand. Yet the challenges they face differ DENTISTRY AROUND THE WORLD Supporting Tanzania’s future dental workforce By Joakim Rådström, Freelance journalist David Eliakim Malin Cronqvist
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