Sustainable success from Witten: from student project to independent dental clinic in The Gambia

What began as a student initiative in 1994 is now bearing impressive fruit: Now the "Jordan Dental Clinic" has been ceremoniously opened in the village of Kerewan in The Gambia - named after Prof Dr A. Rainer Jordan, who once launched the project as a student at Witten/Herdecke University (UW/H) and later developed it sustainably as an employee of the university. For Prof. Jordan, the naming is a great honour: "I am deeply touched and at the same time proud to see what our project has become. The clinic is proof that helping people to help themselves works."

The official opening of the dental clinic, which was also attended by the German ambassador Klaus Botzet, attracted a great deal of attention throughout the country and was very well received by politicians and the general public. The project, originally supported by a small number of students, has now become an important part of Gambia's medical infrastructure.

A simple treatment method that works without electricity laid the foundations

While studying dentistry in the 1990s, Andreas Rainer Jordan learnt about the "Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART)" method, in which caries can be treated with simple hand instruments and without electricity. Together with two fellow students, he then developed the idea of establishing dental care in a region that had neither the technical infrastructure nor the personnel. With the support of Witten/Herdecke University, Jordan and his fellow students travelled to The Gambia for the first time in 1994. Demand was high and the trio from Witten quickly realised that they had to take the project to the next level. In 2005, Jordan, now a dentist with a doctorate, returned to the UW/H as a member of staff and rejoined the project. In cooperation with the Gambian Ministry of Health, he spent the next 19 years training locals to become Community Oral Health Workers (COHWs) and set up 13 treatment centres throughout the country.

"The special thing about a medical profession is being able to really help people - to relieve their pain," says the dentist and continues, "I became particularly aware of my responsibility in The Gambia when people came to the clinic who had walked for days to be treated. Or when a man can finally go back to his appointment without pain and feed his family thanks to the treatment."

Witten as a breeding ground for social commitment

A key element of the sustainable success is the close relationship between Prof Jordan and Ousman Y. Bah, one of the first Community Oral Health Workers to be trained as part of the project. The two men have kept in touch across continents for more than twenty years. Today, Ousman Y. Bah heads the newly opened Jordan Dental Clinic. For him, the opening marks a milestone that he would never have dreamed of at the beginning.

Prof Dr Andreas Rainer Jordan also attributes the success of the project to the UW/H's formative philosophy. Even during their studies, the university encouraged its students to get involved. "In addition to the subject-specific training, my lecturers always encouraged me to try things out and broaden my horizons beyond the straight and narrow," he says. Today, as a lecturer, he wants to pass on the courage to take on responsibility and make a social impact to his students.

The Gambia project continues to inspire generations of dental students from Witten: a student initiative is currently flying to Nepal on a regular basis to raise awareness and offer dental help to local people.

Sustainable quality assurance: further training programmes for COHWs

Even after the opening of the Jordan Dental Clinic, the dentist from Witten wants to continue contributing to the quality assurance of care in The Gambia. In cooperation with the Community Oral Health Workers, he is planning digital training formats for dental practitioners in order to establish new treatment methods.