As the year draws to a close, the Timor Leste Dental Program would like to wish all our volunteers, their families, our supporters, friends and loved ones “Bosfestas Natal!!!”, ie a very merry Christmas. We hope that the following year is one of peace, joy and fulfilment for all.

Despite its challenges, this year has been a very successful one for the program. We sent out 5 teams in total, visited 17 villages and 6 schools, treated 2371 Timorese people and carried out treatment worth a conservative estimate of A$649630. We worked with many different Timorese people and visited a myriad of new places.

Next year we hope to see more of Aida, Tino, Armando and Ricardo, who seemed to be doing a lot of in-house training this year. Aida, Blanche and Sr Filomena will be running a mid-year refresher dental health workshop, focusing on prevention, for teachers and health workers from the Maubara, Loes and Liquica subdistricts, and the program will be getting its feet wet as it trials a service to the nearby island of Atauro. It will be a great year next year!!

Thank you all for your support and your compassion for the Timorese people. Ate tinan-oan! See you next year!!!