global child dental fundwww.gcdfund.org

Global Child Dental FundThe story so far – 2006-2010

A Public Private Partnership with Colgate Palmolive

The Global Child Dental Fund works to build on the achievements of the Global Child Dental Health Taskforce (GCDHT).

GCDHT was established in January 2006 in response to the Declaration on Child Oral Health which was signed by 40 senior dental advisors and chief dental officers along with representatives from the World Health Organization.

The declaration called for a global taskforce to raise the profile of the worldwide crisis of dental decay among disadvantaged children

Initial funding was received from the UK government. The charity was subsequently established in 2008 and nowdrives forward all the activities of the GCDHT.

The Global Child Dental Fund

The Global Child Dental Fund is a UK based charity whose mission is to improve the dental health of disadvantaged childrenworldwide.

We do this by:

• Establishing national taskforces

• Developing leadership initiatives

• Growing local capability for effective caries management and prevention

• Developing Public Private Partnershipswith leading global dental companies

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“We believe every child can and should have a healthy smile because oral health is crucial for general health and well-being”

Professor Raman Bedi, Chairman

Signing of the Declaration on Child Oral Health by World DentalDevelopment Committee (FDI), Raman Bedi for Chief Dental Officers and Poul Erik Petersen for WHO.

Our history

Establishing taskforces

We develop and support national taskforces to champion the dental needs of disadvantaged children, to create and implement demonstration projects and to work collaboratively to coordinate countrywide activities.

Developing Leadership initiatives

Since 2007 over 60 senior academics, policy makers andchief dental officers have attended our annual senior dentalleaders programme. From 2010 SDL programmes are run in conjunction with Harvard University School of DentalMedicine. We recently launched global dental leaders, anonline resource and learning environment enabling today’syoung dentists to become tomorrow's dental leaders.

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“Support for the Global Child Dental Health Taskforce is Colgate Palmolives’ 200th anniversary gift to children worldwide.”

Ian Cook, CEO, Colgate Palmolive

Growing local capability

We build capability by teaching and promoting effective caries management and prevention techniques. This spreads skills (both administrative and clinical), allowing communities to meet their own challenges and sustain preventative cultures.

Creating ‘Public Private Partnerships’

By creating PPPs the charity gives international dental companies and local taskforces opportunities to work together towards the shared goal of “zero cavities” in children. A successful PPP has been established with our founding sponsor, Colgate Palmolive. Henry Schein provideongoing support for our leadership programmes.

Colgate Palmolive CEO Ian Cook rings the bell to start trading at the NYSE and announces Colgate’s support for the GCDHT project.

Ian Cook, John Thain (CEO, NYSE) addressing the boards ofColgate and the NYSE at Colgate’s 200th anniversary celebration breakfast.

Our Activities

GCDF is committed to solving the problems of child dentalhealth through sustainable development built on local leadership provided by local people determining agendas to deliver localised services. Local taskforces determine theirown programmes, raise their own funds and deliver in theirlocal area.

Local taskforces ensure that oral health prevention is embedded in local policy agendas. This is the best way to promote evidence-based oral health messages.

The taskforces are made up of senior figures from dentistry,including government representatives, dental professionals,NGOs and academic leaders. To date, £25 million has beenraised in cash and materials to support the taskforces.

The global Public Private Partnership established with Colgate-Palmolive, has, to date, benefited over 20 millionchildren through programmes led by the taskforces established in the following countries:

China • Australia • New Zealand • Philippines Thailand • Cambodia • India • USA • MexicoVenezuela • Colombia • Brazil • South Africa.

• a common framework without which even the most successful national taskforces would be isolated and less effective.

• a common focus for their activities so thetaskforces can work efficiently towards theshared transnational goal of eradicating dentalcavities in children.

• the global health leadership needed tointegrate multi-level national action within a genuine intra-national global healthprogramme.

Establishing Taskforces

GCDHT_ China Taskforce

In 2009 over one million children benefited from the activitiesof the China taskforce. These included the nearly 35,000 children who visited one of 7 Colgate Bright Smiles, BrightFutures (BSBF) Centres to receive oral health education.

Delivering oral health messages to children on this scale lays the foundation for improvements in oral health by establishing good habits. Oral health messages have alsobeen spread through teacher training programmes for juniorschool teachers in Yunnan and Ningxia provinces using specially produced training materials.

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1.1 million children in Neimeng, Guangxi, Shannxi, Yunnan and

Ningxia participated in programmes co-ordinated by

the China Taskforce.

Overview

What GCDF provides:

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• 800,000 children received specially produced educational products.

• Over 50,000 took part in education activitiesrun in conjunction with over 100 universities.

• 35,000 disadvantaged children were helped by dental programmes in São Paulo State.

• Outreach programmes were run by 90 volunteer dentalstudents in cooperation with Cruzeiro do Sul, São Pauloand Federal University of Curitiba, Paraná.

• There are now BSBF Centres established in 3 dental schools.

The Beacon Centre was opened at theUniversity of São Paulo in June 2009 by the GCDHT_Brazil taskforce.

GCDHT_ Brazil Taskforce

1.3 million Brazilian children benefited from programmes organised by the taskforce in 2009

l. to r. Professor Guedes-Pinto with Professor Raman Bedi and Dr Roberto Vianna at the opening of the Beacon Centre.

By growing local capability, communities can escape from this dependency. Local leaders can assume full responsibility for planning and delivering services and, with appropriate leadershipskills, can more efficiently achieve their goals thanwhen negotiating with outside providers who mayhave their own goals and preconceptions. This approach spreads administrative and clinical skills,enabling communities to solve their own problems.

Growing capability is also an integral part ofGCDF’s strategy for delivering long-term improvements through cultural change. Dentalhealth is often under-prioritised. A lack of local capability is both a result and a cause of this. It isa result of low levels of investment, but it is also a signal that dental health is not considered a priority. Growing capability affirms the importanceof dental health, secures its place within localhealthcare cultures, and plays an important role inconsolidating the effectiveness of evidence-basededucation programmes.

Dr Robert Yee, University ofSingapore, is a world renownedexpert on the management ofdental caries in low incomecountries. He has worked inNepal for a number of years and field-tested the use of Silver Diamine Fluoride as a

cost-effective method of arresting dental decay in children.

At the request of the GCDHT_Cambodia taskforce,the charity funded the visit of Robert Yee toPhnom Penh and a training day for dentists, NGOsand medical staff on the use of SDF. The Cambodiancharity One-2-One facilitated the event.

Growing capability5

Growing capability is a major strategic aim of GCDF because it allows local programmes to deliver sustainable change. Without capability building, programmes remain dependenton outside providers to deliver treatment.

Cambodia

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Professor Hanif Moola thanksProfessor Raman Bedi for his help.

GCDHT_South Africa taskforce members workingwith leading academics and provincial oral healthleads on plans to improve the dental health ofchildren in South Africa.

In May 2008, a dental capacity buildingworkshop was held to develop strategic oralhealth plans for the South African provinces.The workshop was hosted by Dr Johan Smit,Chief Dental Officer of South Africa, Professor Raman Bedi and the University ofthe Western Cape.

‘The support of the South African Ministry ofHealth was hugely influential. The request of theDirector-General to each province to support the project was crucial and quickly resulted inextra funding from the provinces for oral healthservices. It was a significant step forward in dental health provision for South African children,especially the poor black children.

Professor Raman Bedi

‘It was exciting to see civil servants, professors ofdental public health and provincial oral healthmanagers working together to develop plans thatwill invariably help underserved children through-out the country. Everyone worked with great teamspirit: we have captured a synergy that will makea significant difference to the dental agenda ofthis country. We are also encouraged by the$55,000 commitment from the WHO to buy fissure sealants to seal first and second permanentmolars on needy children at specific schools.’

Dr Johan Smit, Chief Dental Officer of South Africa

‘Building dental public health capacity is crucialand has been a long term commitment of ourUniversity. We are grateful to Milners, Colgateand the Global Child Dental Fund for co-sponsoring this meeting.’

Professor Hanif Moola, Dean of the Dental School

University of the Western Cape

South Africa

GCDF recognises that local approaches will only work if there are local leaders capable of delivering change. Sustainable change cannot be achieved through simple injections of resources. We already have the clinical knowledge and skills to defeat dental disease: we now need leaders able to implement the strategies that will put this knowledge to work.

The Senior Dental Leaders programme (SDL), which has now held four annual conferences in London and the USA, is designed to create these leaders. SDL allows senior dentalleaders to develop their leadership skills and learn how to use them effectively to improve children’s oral health.

‘Our vision is to train and mentor 400 senior dental leaders over the next ten years.’

Leadership initiatives7

“Harvard University has a long and illustrious history in training individuals from all walks of life. Though our collaboration with the GCDF's Senior Dental LeadersProgrammes, we can upscale our work in the dental field. I am excited about thepossibilities this collaboration can bring and the improvements we can expect in both the oral health of our global society and the way dental services are delivered.”

Professor Bruce Donoff Dean, Harvard School of Dental Medicine

Senior Dental Leaders Programmes

The SDL programme includes participants from a range of countries including China, India, Tanzania, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Mexico, South Africa, Brazil, USA and the UK.

Attendees of the SDL-4 programme, 2010 conference.

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The latest strand of our leadership support activities is thenew Global Dental Leaders website. It targets younger dentalprofessionals, providing them with resources to develop theirleadership potential and networks to facilitate activities fulfilling social responsibilities.

The Global Dental Leaders website supports a three-fold mission of personal development, voluntary activity, and connecting to other students, academics and practitioners.

www.globaldentalleaders.org

Change can be promoted through effective evidence-basededucation programmes, but these have to be part of long-term sustainable programmes. We need to be thinking notjust about those who are children now, but about the oralhealth of children in 10 and 20 years time.

GDL meets the challenges of delivering sustainable change bynurturing the leaders of tomorrow who, over a long period oftime, will work to change local cultures and eradicate thefundamental causes of preventable dental disease.

Global Dental Leaders

Education for the future

“As the Chairman and CEO of Henry Schein, Inc., a global Fortune 500 company,I have seen the great strength of diverse perspectives and resources all focusedon achieving a single goal. This is the potential power that our combined effortscan have on achieving the important mission of the Global Child Dental Fund.

Through the Senior Dental Leaders programme, Henry Schein is committed toworking with representatives from all segments of the global dental community to help foster a new generation of dental leaders who can ensure that we continue to improve oral health care for underserved children around the world.”

Stanley M. Bergman, Chairman and CEO Henry Schein, Inc.

What next?9

Leadership development

The Senior Dental Leaders programme will continue with annual programmes in conjunction with King’s College Londonand Harvard School of Dental Medicine. Planning for SDL-5 (to be held in spring 2011), is at an advanced stage. Over 10years, we aim to identify, train and mentor 400 dental leaderswho will in turn drive forward the dental profession in the firsthalf of the 21st century.

Global Dental Leaders will be rolled out during the second half of 2010. Through this programme, we will extend our professional engagement to include emerging leaders withindentistry and provide them with support and resources tomake the transition to effective senior leadership. GrowingGDL will be an important part of our activities over the coming years. It will help us build a broad movement for sustainable change within the global oral health community.

In order to achieve our goals we will provide the leadership andresources that our taskforces need to become transformativeregional hubs acting as catalysts for change. We will help taskforces identify and develop local funding sources. We will support them as they devise and implement their ownprogrammes (encouraging the involvement of senior clinicians),and we will enable taskforces to share examples of best practice. Our ambition is for every taskforce to become a dynamic and innovative regional hub supervising its own satellite programmes. We will concentrate on producing and makingavailable toolkits and other resources to help them achieve thisgoal and will continue to provide overall guidance to the network.

All of our activities will continue to promote the key goal of growing local capability. The need for sustainability is hard-wired into our planning for the future, and we will remaincommitted to the principle of empowering local communitiesto overcome their own oral health challenges.

“Our vision for the future is centred on our commitment to empowering local communities to overcome their own oral health challenges.”

Underpinning the work of the Global Child Dental Fund is a group of committedand passionate people.

Patron:

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Chairman:

Professor Raman Bedi

Trustees:

Dr Marion Bergman

Dr Tony Volpe

Mr Richard Price

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Please make cheques payable to: ‘The Global Child Dental Fund’and post to: The Global Child Dental Fund Rooms 329-331, 26-29 Drury Lane London WC2B 5RL

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You can donate online at www.gcdfund.org or fill out andpost the form below with your donation. Thank you.

If you would like to know more about how you can help us improvethe dental health of children worldwide, please contact us:

Email: raman.bedi@kcl.ac.ukVisit: www.gcdfund.org

Global Child Dental FundRooms 329-331, 26-29 Drury LaneLondon WC2B 5RL

Registered charity no: 1125850 (England & Wales) global child dental fund

Thank you to our founding and principal sponsor – Colgate Palmolive

Our academic partners In partnership with the ACFF

Sponsors of our Dental Leadership Programmes