Exciting times

Posted in: Blog, by kayleighb2a, on 3rd June 2014 | 0 comments

– Mark Topley, CEO

It’s a very exciting time for me at the moment as the work to relocate Hope Dental Centre (HDC) to a new building has been moving on at pace. The work enters its final stage this week as the internal and external renovations are now ready for the installation of equipment.

If you have read our news page or follow us on Facebook you’ll know that 10 years after we opened the first HDC, we felt the time was right to move ‘Hope2′ to bigger and more accessible premises. The old building served us well for a number of years, but as time has gone on it has become increasingly difficult to maintain an environment which fits with our standards of excellence.

Quick background on HDC – Ian and Andie’s vision with Hope was to create a great dental clinic which as well as serving the Mwanza community with full service dentistry, would also generate income which would help us to fund charity operations here. Heralded at the time by the Chief Dental Officer for England and Wales as a ‘beacon initiative’, HDC has generated huge amounts of income (around 10% annually) to help fund our work and add a boost to the money donated and raised by our supporters in the UK.

The move has been funded and led primarily by our great friends at Chipping Manor Dental Practice (CMPD), and supported from the start by the team at A-dec.

Ian Stephens from CMDP has led the project, and done an incredible job planning and executing. You can read Ian’s excellent ‘Building Hope’ blogs here. I’m a bit of a planner myself, but I have been hugely impressed by the level of preparation that went into putting this project together and how Ian has expertly implemented it, and directed the local workforce involved – NOT an easy task! He has also worked his backside off himself and I am so grateful to him, his wife Maggie who is also here, and CMDP.

karl bri and ian june 2014

Joining Ian this week are Brian Anderson and Karl O’Higgins from A-dec. Old friends of Bridge2Aid’s since 2004 – when Ian Wilson (our co-founder) approached Karl at a conference to ask if he had ‘any cabinets going spare’ – the company has since donated two dental packages for HDC 1, as well as providing regular on site engineering support and spare parts. They have also raised a lot of money for us and hosted us on their stand at the British Dental Trade Association Showcase for many years. Karl and team have been very involved in the planning for the move as well.

The container full of 3 new A-dec packages, donated cabinetry, dental equipment, X-rays, computers and even a 10ft Reception Desk arrived last week (much to Ian’s relief) and everything is now ready to go. By the end of this week, we’ll have a fully functioning, state of the art dental practice ready to open as soon as we have the final certificate from the powers that be.

As well as A-dec and CMDP, many of our other friends have donated or discounted equipment for the move –

Chipping Manor Dental Practice | A-dec | Durr Dental | Satelec | DBGE | schmann | NSK | Microminder | Dental Directory | Hague Dental | Happy Threads | ASPD | Dentisan | Dental Style | Mercia Dental | Midland Lead | Admor | SOE | Henry Schein Dental

I can’t express how much this new clinic means to us, both in materials terms, as well as morale:

  • It gives us a facility from which we can provide quality dentistry and continue to serve the Mwanza area
  • There’s been a huge boost to the morale of the clinic team, who have battled on in the deteriorating existing building
  • It gives us extra capacity to provide dentistry and therefore generate more income
  • The additional space means we can pursue our aim of not only treating but preventing dental problems through Oral Health Education
  • It makes the organisation more sustainable
  • The quality of the clinic, added to the fantastic work our clinicians provide, gives us scope to market further and wider

There will be more photos of the finished building in weeks to come, and one almighty opening ceremony once we have our last inspection. Thanks to CMDP, Ian, A-dec and our other donors, we can look forward to a bright future for the vision of Hope Dental Centre, and the vital work it helps to fund in Tanzania.


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