"Um sorriso para o Haiti"

O Dr. Prophete pediu um minuto de silêncio para as centenas de milhares de vítimas e convidou as associações e profissionais de Odontologia dos EUA a apoiar na reconstrução de clínicas destruídas pelo terremoto e do sistema de saúde pública do seu país.

"O povo do Haiti será eternamente grato a comunidade internacional pela ajuda recebida e Dentistas voluntários que passarão a ajudar, juntamente com colegas haitianos, para trazer alívio para os necessitados", disse o Dr. Prophete. O diretor haitiano emocionou a platéia com seu discurso e concluiu dizendo que esta tragédia é também uma oportunidade única para homenagear as vítimas, "ajudando com a gigantesca tarefa de reconstruir o Haiti com ajuda de todos".

Convidamos a empresas, universidades e dentistas para participar desses esforços patrocinando palestrantes da "Um sorriso para o Haiti" no seguintes ocorrências:

1. Seminários on-line em Inglês. "Um sorriso para o Haiti": três dias da seminários on-line em Inglês por reconhecidos palestrantes de EUA e Europa através de nosso programa de educação online Dental Tribune Study Club (www.dtstudyclub.com).

10 de 12 da Maio. Contato: julia.wehkamp@dtstudyclub.com

2. Seminários on-line em espanhol. "Um sorriso para o Haiti" no México. Quatro dias da conferências transmitidas a toda America Latina através da Dental Tribune Study Club (www.dtstudyclub.com). O mesmo irá ocorrer durante o congresso da Federação Dentaria Ibero-Latino-Americana (FDILA) em Puerto Vallarta, que será totalmente dedicado a "Um sorriso para o Haiti."
13 a 16 da Maio. Contato: j.depison @ dental-tribune.com

Discurso da Dr Prophete
Speech by Dr. Samuel Prophete, president of the Haiti Dental Association, at the Opening Session of the Chicago Midwinter Meeting, February 25th, 2010.

Dr. Michael Stablein, President of the Chicago Dental Society,
Dr. Roberto Vianna, President of FDI
Dr Adolfo Rodriguez, President of FOLA
Honorable members of the Chicago Dental Society:
I would like to ask all of you for one minute of silence to remember the hundreds of thousands of people who died in a very tragic earthquake in Haiti on January 12th 2010…
Thank you!

i would like to thank the Chicago Dental Society, the American Dental Association and the editor of the Dental Tribune Latin America, Mr Javier de Pison, who invited me to the Chicago Midwinter Meeting, and made this trip possible. I also would like to thank the FDI World Dental Federation and the Latin American Dental Federation (FOLA) for their help from the start.

On January 12th, a powerful earthquake of 7 on the Richter scale hit Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, for some 40 seconds. Unfortunately, since the last strong earthquake to hit Port-au-Prince happened in 1770, buildings were constructed without sismic construction safeguards. Thus, even the best-looking buildings were vulnerable and fragile. In a city built to accommodate 300,000 people that just before the earthquake had almost 3 million inhabitants, one can easily understand why the damage and the death toll have been so high!

Haiti has been and still is the country in the Western Hemisphere with the lowest ratio of dentists per population. The earthquake left the Haitian dental community with one (1) officially dead, another missing and thirty (30) who lost their practices.

These numbers may appear insignificant, but in a country where the total of practicing dentists was no higher than 350 and most of them had their offices located in Port-au-Prince, it makes sense to worry about the deterioration in the dental care of the Haitian people.

The Haitian Dental Association welcomes any idea, any help that would allow our colleagues to get back to their practice since, in addition to loosing family members, homes, and livelihoods, they have to rebuilding from scratch their lost practices. We, Haitians, unfortunately, don’t have a culture of insurance, which explains why it will be so difficult for most of us to start over again.

The Haitian population will be grateful forever to the International community of dentists when they receive in their shelters and improvised refugee camps, kits of personal hygiene containing toothbrushes, toothpastes and soap, and, why not, dentists who volunteer to come work side by side with their Haitian counterparts to bring a healthy smile to the needed!

In the first days after the earthquake, most of the emails I received were about the status of our unique Dental School: La Faculte d’Odontologie. Well, the Dental School remains firm and stable as a good and solid third molar.

The NYU College of Dentistry will donate 34 chairs to equip both the dental school and the public dental services. We will need your help and support for their transportation to Haiti. Also, the Dean of our Dental School will welcome all the support he can get to help him strengthen and modernize the curriculum of the Dental School. From our experience, special attention should be put on emergency care and disaster response; this will allow our students and dentists to be better prepared for these tragic situations in the future.
As tragic and catastrophic as the earthquake has been, we have to move forward and make of this tragic event an opportunity to do things differently. That would be the best way to honor the dead, by putting in place the adequate measures that will prevent in the future what a reporter called ”useless deaths”.

Let’s face it, Haitians alone cannot and won’t be able to do the titanic job of rebuilding our country; and as proud and hard-working as we are, Haiti seeks, and needs international support. We look forward to collaborating with our old, and our new friends. We will be waiting for the help of Haitian-American dentists, American dentists, and Latin American dentists to walk along with us and give back to the Haitian people their legendary smile.

Everybdy, including physicians, engineers, nurses, urban planners, dentists, journalists, entrepreneurs, etc., will have their say, as professionals and as teams with a common goal.
Thank you for your time, and May God Bless you all.