Students Can Fend Off Lions, but Not Cavities

GSDM CHP Oral Health Promotion Director Kathy Lituri led a team of student volunteers to the Notre Dame Educational Center (NDEC) in South Boston, where they provided outreach to adult learners on February 15. This is the second outreach effort that GSDM has organized at NDEC.

Derrick Call DMD 12, whose wife is a former teacher at NDEC, explained why he feels it’s important for GSDM to get involved, “When my wife taught at the school they had cultural day and one of the students from Sudan was chosen to give a speech. He spoke about how to hold off a threatening lion, how to move your herd across a river when it’s full of crocodiles, and how to run away from an elephant and other wild animals. But then he spoke about how, after he came to America, it was hard to use a stove and other similar things which we take for granted.”

Call continued, “I think that seeing a dentist regularly is another thing we take for granted that the NDEC students don’t really know how to do. Oftentimes my wife would say her students don’t know how to go out and find a dentist, doctor, lawyer, etc when they are in desperate need of one. So I think this type of service is extremely important to the students at this school and other schools like it.”

GSDM’s efforts at NDEC involved health promotion, education, screenings, and referrals. The volunteers screened 62 adults.