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"BRIDGE the GAP" VIETNAM - 2000
click here for 1999 report>>
The "Bridge the Gap" Foundation is a modest group of Dutch Oral/Maxillofacial and Plastic/Reconstructive surgeons, dentists and an anesthetist (six all together) that some five year ago started a training project in Vietnam. In cooperation
with the Maxillo-Facial and Plastic Surgery Institute in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Since its inception, the Academy of Dentistry International and its Foundation have financially supported this Dutch Foundation and assisted in the coordination of the Academy's international fellows in participation.
Part 1 of the Bridge the Gap project is training and treatment (operation). The team also treats and trains in outlining provinces to give access to care for "those kids at the end of the line".
Part 2 of this project is to guide their dental school in reorganization of its departments and set up of a research, a department of preventative dentistry for parents and children, a child care unit and restorative dental center to further treat those operated children into functional and socially acceptable adults of the future.
Part 3 is to make a contract between the surgical hospital (where treatments take place), the dental school (for further treatment) and Bridge the Gap Foundation to prepare them for what in developed countries is normal, a multifunctional treatment program supported by different disciplines.
To date this Foundation has trained eight Vietnamese colleagues and operated some 650 children, reorganize the dental school and in 2000 signed our cooperative contract.
In January, 2000 the team arrived at Ton Son Nat airport in Ho Chi Minh City. The following three days were occupied with very complicated surgery and finalized the contract with the Dental School of the Medical Faculty for the follow-up care of the patients treated. Next the surgical team traveled via Da Nang to the village of Dien Ban in the province of Quang Nam. There 107 children were treated. The team that contributed to this most satisfying and productive year 2000 for the Bridge the Gap Foundation were:
Prof. Dr. J. W. Mulder
Dr. J. J. de Mol van Otterloo*
Dr. J. R. Dam Backer*
Dr. J. H. Schoote*
Dr. K. H. Dijk
Prof. Dr. D. B. Tuinzing
* designates ADI Fellows
The Bridge the Gap Foundation was supported in the year 2000 project by the Rotary clubs of Barneveld, Lelystad, Zandvoort, Groningen, Oxted and Limpsfield and Singapore, the Rotary Foundation, Ladies Circle of Lelystad, Soroptimist Club Amsterdam-zuid/Amstelveen, Teunissen Foundation, NCDO, the Companies Dental Union and Megadent, many private donations and the Academy of Dentistry International.
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Programs: Vietnam 
