Brighter smiles Africa - translation of a Canadian community-based Health-promoting school program to Uganda

Abstract

Project goal: To adapt a successful Canadian health-promoting school initiative to a Ugandan context through international partnership. Rationale: Rural children face many health challenges worldwide; health professionals in training understand these better through community-based learning. Aboriginal leaders in a Canadian First-Nations community identified poor oral health as a child health issue with major long-term societal impact and intervened successfully with university partners through a school-based program called “Brighter Smiles”. Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda (MUK) sought to implement this delivery model for both the benefit of communities and the dental students. Key steps/hurdles addressed: MUK identified rural communities where hospitals could provide dental students with community based learning and recruited four local schools. A joint Ugandan and Canadian team of both trainees and faculty planned the program, obtained ethics consent and baseline data, initiated the Brighter Smiles intervention model (daily at-school toothbrushing; in-class education), and recruited a cohort to receive additional bi-annual topical fluoride. Hurdles included: challenging international communication and planning due to inconsistent internet connections; discrepancies between Canadian and developing world concepts of research ethics and informed consent; complex dynamics for community engagement and steep