Dentists’ philanthropy smiles on Westman Immigrant Services

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This article was published 13/11/2019 (2371 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Newcomers will have one less thing to worry about after Westman Immigrant Services received $10,000 to help them improve their oral health.

The grant was presented Tuesday by the Manitoba Dental Foundation, which raises money through various fundraisers to help community organizations.

“When everyone arrives here, there are lots of individuals who have lots of needs, especially in the first year or two, once they’ve come to settle here in Canada,” said Westman Immigrant Services executive director Lois MacDonald.

The not-for-profit organization provides settlement, employment and languages services to immigrants and refugees in the Westman region.

“They sometimes have some really intense needs as they come and get established in Canada,” MacDonald said, and oral health isn’t always a priority.

The money will help fund oral-health kits, as well as allowing the organization to work with local dentists to provide assistance to newcomers who have dental needs that aren’t covered by other programs, such as cleanings, she said.

“Obviously, the need could be really great. We are looking at focusing, for right now, on refugee clients.”

“There are people that fall through the cracks,” said Craig Fedorowich, the MDF’s Westman representative and chairman of the fundraising committee.

“There are social programs,” he said. “Unfortunately, social programs don’t fit the needs of people that are in that grey area, where they generate income but still find it a challenge to be able to put money towards dentistry.”

Since it started in 2015, the foundation has raised $135,000 to help organizations help others. It also recruits dentists to donate their time and dental services to the province’s under-served population.

“Our impetus is, in fact, to provide funding to improve the oral health of the under-served of all ages,” said foundation executive director Frank Hechter.

Hechter noted there are limits to government support.

“We are motivated, for the most part, for what are otherwise described as the working poor, who don’t have the benefits of social allowance or other governmental programs, but are working in organizations in which there are no third-party insurance coverage and for whom … accessing oral health care becomes highly problematic and financially very restrictive.”

Some of the organizations to which the foundation has provided grants include Siloam Mission, Mount Carmel Clinic, Deer Lodge Centre, Bruce Oake Foundation, the Never Alone and About Face foundations, the University of Manitoba’s Happy Smile Healthy Child initiative and Mondetta International.

Hechter said the MDF is looking to reach even more organizations outside the Winnipeg perimeter.

“We in dentistry are very fortunate in that we have been granted by society an important role within the community,” he said. “But at the end of the day, we also bear responsibility, professional and personal, in terms of conducting ourselves with integrity and honesty and having a social conscience that provides dentists the opportunity to contribute to society as a whole beyond their specific education and training background.”

Manitoba has 750 practising dentists.

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