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Matching Grant # 61213 - Rotary District 3160 - India 
Mobile Dental Clinic

This project funded the purchase and construction of a van that was donated to a dental college in Bidar, India.

The Rotary Club of Basavakalyan, India in District 3160 partnered with the Rotary Club of Sparta, Illinois, D6510 to sponsor this matching grant. Additional funding came from Rotary District 6060-Eastern Missouri; District 6150-Northern Arkansas; and District 6510-Southern Illinois.

The S. B. Patil Dental College & Hospital in Bidar, India made an agreement with Rotary that if our Rotary Foundation would purchase the van, the Dental College would fit it out and equip it as a mobile dental office.

This project developed as a result of an exploratory trip to India by two Missouri Rotarian dentists in January 2005. Dr. Saba Khalil and Dr. Todd Lindley received an Individual Grant from our Rotary Foundation to travel to Bidar, India to research the need for dental projects to help the local poor population.

Past District Governor Umesh Megur arranged for the two Missouri dentists to spend time nearly every day for a week, with the Community Health Department of the S.B. Patil College of Dentistry faculty.

As dentists graduate from Dental School in India, they spend another year in a residency program where they rotate through the various specialties of dentistry for two months at a time. The Community Health Department is one such department, where the newly graduated dentists go out into the community to provide service, such as examinations of school-age youth, community education programs to the same youth, and basic and emergency treatment of the rural poor.

At the rural camp, dentists of the Community Health Department provided some dental hygiene services using a portable dental chair and hand-held flashlights.

A local dentist allowed the Community Health Department to use his dental office to place some basic fillings. No x-ray equipment was available.

The oral surgery department was a small hallway with a few plastic lawn chairs.

The  Community Health Department dentists are out providing various types of dental services in the community nearly every day of the month. They visit the remote villages in a 30 mile radius from the school on a rotating basis.  Having access to a fully-equipped dental office would be a huge help to them.

Photo's from early July 2007. The van chassis is being modified to create a mobile dental clinic. Should be completed and ready to be put into service within 30-60 days.

Project inauguration day, Sat. August 11, 2007. District 3160 Governor Satyanarayana M. Rajalabandi visits Basavakalyan and helps dedicate the van for service to the poor. Also attending are Past District Governors Umesh Megur and K.C. Senan.

Project status: approved, funded, completed.