We are currently working to set-up a Den-Tech supported dental lab to provide a high quality more local service for the few dentists within the country.
In order to find any dental lab services the dentists usually have to travel/send work via bus for anything between 5 and 8 hours to find their nearest lab, which is usually situated in the capital Kampala.
As far as we can tell (information is difficult to obtain due to no registration etc) only 10 technicians have been trained at Mulago Hospital in Kampala over the past 4 years and this has been by an Italian charity which no longer provides this service.
We are also in contact with/working with a Ugandan technician who was university trained in the UK and has around 2 years post qualification experience in a UK dental lab and who has since returned home to live and work once again in his home country of Uganda.
At this moment we are looking for two possible laborotory sites, one in the town of Mbale which lies to the east of the country in the foothills of Mount Elgon close to the border with Kenya and the other is Fort Portal which is in the west close to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Both of the above communities are very poor and have extremely limited medical and dental facilities. The average daily wage is around 75p per day. The infrastructure between them and the capital is also incredibly poor and therefore makes travelling very difficult.
Plans are currently being put in place to work in partnership with other agencies already working within the country to help identify and provide dentures for those who need them the most and that cannot afford them but desperately need them to have a more practical, comfortable and sustainable life.
We are also working with education/training providers within the UK to be able to establish high quality supported training facilities in the Uganda.
Once the supported laboratory and training facilities are established we will be providing volunteering opportunities for our UK technicians to travel out to Uganda to provide extra training and support to the Ugandan technicians both in the laboratories and the dental school to ensure that a high quality service is delivered.
If the initial set-up proves to be successful it is envisaged that we could establish another two or three labs in those areas where the need is greatest.