With Turkey hosting a large number of Syrian refugees, it’s been determined that there’s a need for a dental hygiene project to raise awareness and to inform the Syrian community in Turkey on this matter. In order to achieve this and to support the Turkish government, the International Blue Crescent (IBC), in partnership with Relief International (RI), has started a dental hygiene project that targets both children and adults in the Syrian community. IBC’s project is currently operating in Şanlıurfa, Gaziantep, İstanbul and Bursa.
Within the framework of this project, in order to build awareness and disseminate relevant information, IBC regularly organizes information sessions and activities. While the project targets both children and adults, a main objective of the project is to increase awareness among children. Children are given information on how to improve and maintain their dental hygiene and why this is important through informative games and activities. After the information sessions and activities, both children and adults receive a dental kit containing a toothbrush, toothpaste and dental floss so that they can put in practice what they have learnt and take the necessary preemptive measures against dental problems. Furthermore, at the end of the sessions, beneficiaries undergo a quick checkup and those who need it are referred to public hospitals and IBC workers follow up on all these referred cases.
Up until now, a total of 12.000 people, including both Turkish and Syrian beneficiaries, have been reached. In addition to the above mentioned activities, it’s been planned for the project to expand topic wise. It should be underlined that as a support program to the Turkish Ministry of Health and to other ongoing activities in the ground, this project is of crucial importance in both raising awareness on dental hygiene and in preventing dental health issues.
You can contact IBC in the following addresses:
