3. Timon's Report - Ringo's Profile & Project

Timon writes ...

I arrived in Butenbo from Kampala, on 3^rd March in the afternoon and we had our first meeting in the evening with Ringo Paluku the head of the dental department in the North Kivu Diocese to discuss the working plan for the week we were going to spend together.  He gave me his priorities and I shared mine, so we came up with common plan for the week, which made everything easier.

Ringo

Short description of  Mr Ringo Paluku Wanzirendi.

Ringo is a qualified Nurse heading the dental services in Butembo, but has no qualification in Dentistry. He’s married to Anto Wanzirendi, they are blessed with 7 children. 

It all began before he went for the 4 years nursing school, he was a personal friend to Graham Toulmin and mine as well, so we used to travel together on dental safaris and he was a very committed gentleman to serve us and in the process he started picking interest in the dental work. 

Finally he learned some skills and became more useful for the dental work. For that reason he was taken to work in the dental clinic. 

Having worked with Graham, with me (Timon), and William for a while he knew well how to assist a dentist and the step to perform some most of the procedures. He then decided to go for a nursing school where he qualified as a Nurse. After that he was sent back to work in the dental clinic with me and another dental technician Didi. 

With his humility he continued learning more and more and was very efficient to work even in the absence of a dentist. Time came when I left for Uganda due to the political situation in the country I left him working with Didi, but was the head of the clinic. 

Things did not work well due to many other factors so Ringo left. When Graham visited Congo sometimes back he was very disappointed with the status of the clinic and the working condition characterised by lost instruments, broken down instruments, etc. 

After that visit Ringo was called back to work when Didi decided to leave. Ringo took over the leadership of the dental clinic to date. Being in that position though unqualified as a school trained dentist he has proved to be competent, trustworthy and developmental. 

So if we are proud of the Dental work in Butembo today, he is the man. All the visiting Dentists and students from Sydney University can testify positively for this man’s character, and skills. He’s a humble and teachable person though he loses his English network quite frequently, so he’s still learning and improving with time; those who’ll come again will meet a different Ringo. 

For this reason we are considering to have him qualified in dentistry as soon as we get sponsorship for his dental education. This will be a boost and will ensure sustainability for the dental services in this most populated region of a country with more than 70 million people but with no existing statistics of oral health services distribution, and the ratio of dentist population because the scarcity of personnel and infrastructures...   

CDSI PROJECT:  Sponsorships of Ringo Wanzirendi and Constantin Drumo and 2 other selected candidates to begin A1 Level Training at the Institute (ISTM) at Aru in October.
THE COST:  $2000 eachx4 + travel costs $2000 = $10,000