SDL-6 March 2012
The sixth year of the Senior Dental Leaders (SDL) programme has come and gone with great success and our hope is that many lives will be changed as a result.
The reason for such a bold aspiration is that the SDL programme is run for the purpose of improving lives through change in countries at the highest levels. SDL brings together from around the world senior leaders from dental schools and governments who wish to change their country’s dental provision for the better. The ultimate aim of the programme is the delivery of improvements in child oral health.
Senior dental leadership figures from many different countries have attended over the previous five years and this year was no different. With delegates from five African countries - Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe – as well as Oman, the Solomon Islands, New Zealand, Australia and both of the American continents, the SDL programme was full to bursting with delegates ready to learn from one another and to take home strategic theoretical and practical solutions.
Each year senior figures from our corporate sponsors, Colgate-Palmolive and Henry Schein, provide key insight and experience into dentistry with practical advice for the different global situations the leaders find themselves in. Alongside these were the Dental Deans of Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Dr Bruce Donoff, and King’s College London (KCL), Dr Dianne Rekow, as well as previous KCL Dental Institute Dean, Dr Nairn Wilson. Their insight and advice for the further training of young dental professionals and the creation of new leadership seeks to further the work of preventing caries especially in children.
2012 was also the first year of the Tony Volpe Award in honour of Dr Tony Volpe, our Trustee and Vice President of Colgate’s Clinical Research and Scientific Development department. This prestigious Global Child Dental Fund Award gives two senior dental leaders a scholarship to attend the SDL programme. The winners of this year’s award were Dr Fiona Makoni of Zimbabwe and Mr Enock Phale of Malawi.
By the end of the week the delegates had experienced an inspiring series of seminars and workshops, a snapshot tour of what London has to offer and the KCL LonDEC facility, as well as the formation of networks within Africa and the Pacific regions.
As in past years, it is our hope that these delegates will become partners with the GCDFund and our work with the most disadvantaged children either in their countries or in the countries of those they have met while on the programme.
Click here for our SDL Alumni page.
