New Haven Independent

Smile!

by Staff | February 3, 2006 3:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Child refugees from a rebel war in Sierra Leone will have healthier, shinier teeth thanks to children in their sister city of New Haven. Students at 25 New Haven public schools collected 2,000 toothbrushes to send there; a Yale medical prof, Diane Komp, picked up the brushes at a ceremony at Hillhouse High School. She plans to bring the brushes this coming week during the annual trip she has been taking to Sierra Leone to help out the children there since the war’s end.

“Except for dental staff who participate in short term missions, there are no dentists available to the people who live in bush villages. When a dentist does visit these villages, it is to extract teeth. World Hope International has a program of community health in these villages. They would like to incorporate preventive dentistry into their activities,” Komp said in a school system press release.

Hillhouse’s assistant principal, Althea Norcott, coordinated the toothbrush drive, in a project sponsored by the school system, the Freetown/New Haven Sister Cities Committee, and Theta Epsilon Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. Norcott is at far right in the above photo. The rest of the crew, from left: Mary Boyle, New Haven Sister Cities; Jacqueline Randolph of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, Byron Breland of James Hillhouse High School; Sharay Salters, pres. and Darrell Brown, vice president of the freshmen class; Shamell Staggers, Alexis Brown, Toni Quick, Olga Chiclana.

Share this story: digg / newsvine / facebook