MORE than 500 primary school students in Lae received free dental services from the Esesson Foundation at the Sir Ignatius Kilage Indoor Stadium this week.
The Esesson Foundation is an organisation based in Australia and India that provides free medical and dental checks to school children, under-privileged families and refugees.
Foundation chief executive officer Dr Ajitha Sugnanan said this was their first time in Lae and their third visit to the country.
“There are 18 clinicians and support staff members from Australia who are on their annual leave, and paid for their own way to come and provide these services,” she said.
Sugnanan said the foundation brought its equipment and only sourced medical drugs and consumables locally from the City Pharmacy Limited Group.
“We are only here for a week, and on the first day we have seen 572 students and have done 1,097 procedures that cost K939,000,” she said.
“The main dental issue identified was tooth decay, due to students eating a lot of junk food and soft drinks.”
Sugnanan said while they could not see every school child over the five days, she hoped that those seen had improved dental health and wellbeing. “We would like to acknowledge all our volunteer clinicians and support staff from Australia, the deputy prime minister and member for Lae, John Rosso, with Lae City Authority and the City Pharmacy Ltd Group for this partnership programme.”
She added that Esesson Foundation was a voluntary-based organisation for interested clinicians, medical practicians and support staff who would like to give back to communities.
The five-day dental and medical checkup programme in Lae includes 25 primary schools and five secondary schools that received free dental and medical check services.
