Smiles Forever

Smiles Forever was granted $10,000 for the salaries of a teaching dentist and teaching hygienist required to train additional oral hygienists at the organization’s dental hygiene school in Cochabamba, Bolivia (the only school of its kind in Latin America).  The grant enabled the clinic attached to the school to provide free preventative and restorative dental services to an additional 2250 beneficiaries annually (a 29% increase that brings the total served to 9,000 annually).

Smiles Forever is dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty by providing young indigenous women in Bolivia the opportunity to be educated as dental hygienists.  In turn, these women are able to empower and provide for their own families, become leaders, and engage in providing much-needed dental care services to the disadvantaged and impoverished rural communities in their area.  To accomplish this goal, the organization operates a teaching clinic serving the ultrapoor, a self-sufficient fee for service clinic (both in Cochabamba) and conducts a variety of community service projects in smaller communities such as its current tooth care education and fluoride varnish program.