Dentista brasileiro viaja o país e o mundo para recuperar sorrisos de pessoas de comunidades carentes
Um Brazilian dentist have traveled the country and the world in order to return a smile health to low-income people and underserved areas. Felipe Rossi and a team of 18 people are part of the NGO For a Smile, created by him, promotes Customer service dentalfree in areas of extreme poverty or few resources, as riverside and indigenous populations, quilombolas, residents of the northeastern sertão, impoverished communities on the African continent, and favelas.
— It all started in 2015 when I did volunteer work in Mozambique for an NGO called Missão África, which is part of our project at the moment. There I experienced things that made me return to Brazil deeply affected. In 2016 I returned to Mozambique and came back certain that I needed to do something bigger for Brazil, he explained.
For Felipe, it was time to use dentistry as a tool for social reintegration of people.
"I needed to use dentistry and everything I had learned to bring quality treatment and the best we have in the office to underserved communities. And I started the project with Dr. Marina, who no longer works with us, but was part of this beginning," she said.
NGO For a Smile He did several jobs across the African continent, and according to Felipe, working there brought visibility to the project. However, today, the group's focus is Brazil. The dentist explains that in Brazil, there is almost no free dental care.
— There's a very large deficit in dental care here. Medical care is still available at health posts, but dentistry, not even that. And these are the people we want to reach.
Wherever the group went, stories remained. And one of them is about the young Thiago, 17 years old, whom Dr. Felipe met in the Pernambuco backlands while providing medical care. Although the young man was not on the list for treatment, Felipe invited him to participate in the initiative.
— And I saw him through the window. He wasn't even on the list, but I asked him to smile, and I saw he barely had any teeth left. He was a boy who didn't open his mouth. We treated him, he looked in the mirror, thanked us, and left. I thought he hadn't liked it. Soon after, his mother came to thank us and said he always asked for treatment on his birthday, but since she couldn't afford it, she told him to ask God for it, until we showed up. In the end, she gave me a bag of guavas as a thank you. That was very impactful for me.
In our treatments patients are entitled to cleanings, reconstructions, and implants. To sustain the work, the NGO relies on donations and partnerships. On the project's website, it's possible to follow all of the NGO's financial information, as well as the donations that Felipe and his team receive from partners and collaborators. It's also possible to nominate a location to receive a visit from the Por1Sorriso project, in addition to the schedule of places they'll be visiting.
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