Healthy teeth for life
The overall aim of the healthy teeth for life interventions is to further sustain and strengthen what has already been achieved throughout the previous oral health project implemented by SOS Children’s Villages Rwanda and to lift the objectives to a national level through strategic capacity building and advocacy.
The previous oral health project implemented by SOS Children’s Villages Rwanda and strong focus on advocacy led to a massive achievement: the development of the first Rwanda’s National Oral Health Strategic Plan 2019-2024 (NOHSP).
In 2017, the Harvard School of Medicine completed Rwanda’s first-ever National Oral Health Survey and presented the preliminary draft report to key stakeholders within the MOH and University of Rwanda. According to their website: “(https://hsdm.harvard.edu/news/assessing-oral-health-needs-rwanda, accessed 2018).
The study concluded that the burden of oral diseases and conditions was substantial. Children and adult populations had unmet dental caries and periodontal related treatment needs. The availability of oral health services was found to be challenging and the quality of life was adversely affected by current oral diseases/conditions.
In this project, elements from the strategic plan (NOHSP) will form the overall framework of the intervention, as the elements of the strategy will be implemented and rolled out in selected districts (‘demonstration sites’) in all four provinces of Rwanda as well as in the city of Kigali, ensuring that the plan is anchored with relevant strategic actors from the civil society.
The project is about improving public health and is thus both a public matter and a demand. Amongst others, it will engage primary school children, parents, teachers, and well-organized community-based volunteer groups. The geographic coverage is strategically selected as the intervention has a nationwide focus. This means that there will be a shift in both the objectives and target groups of this intervention compared to our previous interventions, and the strategic approach will differ correspondingly. Civil society agents – and in this context direct implementors of the activities – are community-based health actors and volunteers: Community Health Workers (CHW) and ‘Friend of Families, also targeted are different health professional groups, such as health nurses and dental professionals.
The objectives of the projects are creating a structure for a national system for school-based toothbrushing and handwashing programs as well as oral health promotion on how to roll out the implementation of these programs in primary schools countrywide; develop the capacities of key professional and volunteer target groups; including oral health in key programs within the organization and continue working with their beneficiaries to promote children’s right to good oral health in Rwanda; implement a national system for school-based toothbrushing, handwashing programs and oral health promotion.
The project will support 32,000 children in public schools with improved oral and general health to achieve high performance in class and health free of oral diseases.