The University of Puthisastra (UP) in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, which was founded in 2007, served as the base for our outreach team. On our visits to schools and institutes, we established seven local workstations. Our portable dental unit was allocated to one of the seven workstations. By involving dental students, a significantly higher number of patients could be treated. At the same time, the students benefited from hands-on training. All of our treatments were carried out according to the three phases. We financed the entire team and supplied all the materials for this assignment.
Apart from our activities at the University of Puthisastra (UP), we conducted further awareness-building campaigns at schools between December 2022 and August 2023. Our programs managed to gain the recognition of the Collaborating Centre for Innovation in Population Oral Health (CIPO). CIPO represents all the preventive dental projects and initiatives in Cambodia. It is linked to the Ministry of Health. The “You-Smile I-Smile” group, which is affiliated to CIPO and run by Cambodian pupils, concentrates its activities on children with special needs. Our outreach team provided support for these children by sending the portable unit and dental students to treat patients in the respective institutions. Dr med. dent. Philipp Schneider supervised these teams and instructed and trained them. Exchanges with the teams take place on a regular basis.
In May 2023, we continued our work in Trakiet, which is about one-and-a-half hours away. There, we visited the local community centre managed by the Khmer Association for Development (KAD). Dr. med. dent. Philipp Schneider has worked together closely with the centre for many years as a part of his collaboration with UP. Dr med. dent. Philipp Schneider also used the portable dental unit at the centre. As a result of his excellent training, the KAD team has been able to provide the community with first-class dental treatment.