AISO for Madagascar

Vincenzo, we are proud to have your testimonial on this very important project. In order to better understand our relationship, could you please describe our collaboration with AISO and your personal experience with Hu-Friedy?

It is a pleasure for me to talk about the collaboration that keeps AISO and Hu-Friedy together because I personally believe that this is one of the most important partnerships that our association has. It’s now many years that Hu-Friedy works alongside our students, providing them with the opportunity to take part in several events, throughout the year, all over Italy. These events aim to merge students to the clinical world of dentistry. In addition to this educational side, Hu-Friedy is our main partner for dental instruments, allowing dental students to have access to the world's most renowned products at a very affordable price, leading the future generation of dentists to work with the highest quality equipment possible.

Beside all of this, Hu-Friedy has always been a great friend of AISO ensuring us full support in all of our projects. An example would be our last project, which brought us to the other side of the world, allowing us to bring dental care to the people of Madagascar.

Could you tell us how the idea to go to Madagascar was conceived and how it was developed?

Well, it is actually a very interesting story that brought us to Madagascar: AISO has always been working with worldwide organizations to develop humanitarian projects. This time we have been directly in contact with an Italian non-profit organization, called “Amici di Ampasilava”. They were looking for young dentists willing to experience some work abroad in a totally different way of practicing dentistry.

Personally, this idea inspired me so much and I definitely wanted to do it!

After a brief period needed to better understand what we were about to go through, we decided to accept this wonderful opportunity and put together a team for the expedition.

This was actually the first time that our association was building ambitious project so far away from our homeland. To be honest, it wasn't that easy, as there are so many things you don’t think about in your daily life that are not so obvious in an African country.

I must say that this project would not have been possible without the help of my friend and colleague Claudia, that travelled with me to Madagascar. Together we organized this trip, led a group of 4 people including us, to deliver cures and treatments to the village of Andavadoaka. After the team was gathered and everything had been set, we just needed to find a way to finance our project; and this is where Hu-Friedy came in help!

Thanks to the generosity of several sponsors and of many small donations, we managed to cover part of the cost of the trip and to collect a big quantity of instruments and dental supplies that we then used during our humanitarian action.

We We really want to hear all the details of your experience. What was it like onsite?

Before I tell you about the experience on site, I would love to spend some time sharing a few things on the trip to reach our destination. Once you land by plane on the island of Madagascar, you actually have two ways of reaching the closest city to the hospital; which is Tulear. The first one is by air, flying on regional planes, and the second one is by land, driving on the National Routes of Madagascar. We decided to reach Tulear, a small city in the south-west of the Island, by car, and eventually going back to Antananarivo by plane. The car trip took us 4 days to reach, driving only during daytime along the only road that brings you to the south, giving us the wonderful opportunity to see how the landscape and the nature changes in relation to the climate and altitude differences. It was a tiring yet amazing experience. Our flight back was also a life experience, as I could not have imagined such things until I saw them with my own eyes! Once we reached the airport we checked-in at the counter where you actually drop-off your luggage to an agent that brings your suitcase directly to the airplane. The flight monitor was actually a wooden board with flights hand written with time and destination. After that you head to security where you expect it to be just as your home town airport, with x-rays and metal detectors. Forget it! Once it is your turn, you need to face a police officer that will inspect your hand bag by opening it and digging around for dangerous goods; old school style security check! (Here's to hoping nobody has bad intentions on board).

As I mentioned before, the hospital we worked at is based in Andavadoaka, a small village situated 170 km north of Tulear, the only way to get there is driving, the only road reaching there is a path of sand and dirt that runs along the Mozambique Channel, where you can see one of the bluest seas you can ever see and pass through uncontaminated lands with enormous centenary baobabs. Even though it will take you about 8 hours of driving, it's definitely worth the journey.

Once you reach the village, the feelings and emotions you experience are very unique. The population is around 1000 people, and as soon as you get there you can feel the affection and kindness of the locals. Everyone is constantly smiling and welcoming you. Chances are, if you just walk around for a bit, you will spend all your time saying and responding “salama” (hello) to anyone you cross paths with.

The atmosphere in the hospital can be messy but also really satisfying. The big courtyard that faces the hospital becomes every morning a gathering place for all the people of Andavadoaka and of the neighbour villages, so starting in the early morning until the afternoon you will hear people talking and walking by.

Someone comes there for a check-up, someone need medicaments for pain control, some have a specialist appointment, just like our patients did; and others just come there to spend their time in what each day becomes the center of the village social life.

The patients that visit the hospital can benefit from emergency medical care 24/7. Depending on the time of the year, they can find specialists such as surgeons, dentists, ophthalmologists, physiotherapists and gynaecologists. Therefore, the hospital is organized with several examination rooms, including a dental office with a chair and a small dental lab, a surgery O.R., a radiology and echography cabinet and two hospital rooms that can host up to ten patients.

The hospital depends on the volunteers' activity and presence under the supervision and organization of the Italian non-profit “Amici di Ampasilava”, which always has some residents in the structure to link Italian volunteers to Malagasy populations.

Our two weeks spent in in Hopitaly Vezo passed really fast, as soon as we started to get used to the local life it was time to leave.

Trust me when I say, once all of this was over and we headed back to Italy, we started suffering of “le mal d’Afrique”, a common pathology that affects people who had a great time in Africa!

You’ve been an incredible group of superheroes! How many patients did you treat during your stay? What difficulties did you encounter?

Thank you! We really did feel like superheroes at times. We happened to face situations that will unlikely happen in our daily life. The greatest adversity was the language, it is actually very difficult to dialogue without the help of an interpreter. The hospital has a few of them, that speak Italian and the local language, making it possible to interact between doctors and patients. Many times, it gets hard to make yourself understood even by making gestures. Some of our common sign language means nothing for them. So, you can imagine how difficult it can get when trying to understand a patient that can hardly expressed his symptoms and his feelings, having no x-rays or clinical history, just relying on the ability of the interpreter to understand what the patient is trying to communicate and translating that into a language that he just knows the basics of. Luckily, in the end, we managed to successfully deal with all of the cases that were thrown our way.

In the two weeks spent at Hopitaly Vezo, we actually visited about 500 patients and treated almost 100% of them. Some of the cases needed extra time or long treatment plans, that have been posted to the next dental practitioners visiting the hospital. The daily rate of patients was around 50, which received dental care in the branches of dental hygiene, oral surgery, endodontics, restorative, and prosthetic dentistry.

Our work was essential for the population, since the hospital of Andavadoaka is the only place in Madagascar where you can find free dental care, whereas in the rest of the island, the majority of people cannot afford even one visit to the dentist. It actually happened to treat people coming from far villages, some told us it took them days of zebu ox cart riding to reach the hospital.

I am really proud to say that this adventure has turned out to be one of the most rewarding and transformational experiences I have ever had. My initial motivations to volunteer in Africa came from a deep desire to help people, as I wanted make others’ lives better. In the end, not only did I improve others' lives, but also my own.