Uganda, Africa - Brighter Smiles Oral Health Program

Brighter Smiles Oral Health Program, Uganda, Africa

This collaboration between the University of British Columbia, The Centre and Makerere University is working to introduce the Brighter Smiles Oral Health Program to communities in Uganda. It was initiated by the Makerere Department of Dentistry. Brighter Smiles was first pioneered effectively with Aboriginal children in British Columbia. Major project activities include:

• Capacity building at Makerere in the areas of planning and implementing community-based programs and designing and conducting prospective, hypothesis driven research studies.
• Joint preparation of community-based rotations focusing on school-based health promotion in oral health.
• Use of oral health promotion as a first step in developing “health promotion schools” that will inspire community initiative to identify local healthcare needs and form links with the university to develop community-based solutions.