An Autoclave, a Dentist and an Assistant
Claudine, a dentist, and her husband Young, who acted as a dental assistant, provided dental care for 20 to 30 Ethiopian prisoners every day. Most prisoners needed tooth extractions due to severe decay. The older prisoners even had teeth decayed down to stumps. Many patients presented with dentistry needs that are not common to Australian patients, like a young man with a tooth abscess that was draining pus through his cheek.
Would you give up two weeks of your annual leave and travel to Ethiopia at your own expense to provide free dental care to more than 150 prisoners?
Last December, a husband and wife team, Claudine and Young Tsao did just that. Hosted by Prison Fellowship Ethiopia who worked in partnership with PFI's Global Assistance Program (GAP) to plan the visit they travelled from the leafy and prosperous Eastern suburbs of Melbourne to the barren, dusty and overcrowded prisons of Ethiopia.
Working 12 hours every day, sometimes having to make two hour trips by car to get to outlying prisons, they worked in seven of the 88 prisons in Ethiopia - prisons that are unrecognizable in Victoria. Wilkintie prison for example, situated 130km from Addis Ababa, home to 450 men, 12 women and a few children, who spend their days in meaningless drudgery. Crowded and unhygienic conditions foster the spread of disease. Dry pit latrines fill quickly and become unsanitary. Each inmate receives only one and a half litres of water per day for drinking, cooking, bathing, laundry and cleaning teeth. Interestingly, toothbrushes in Ethiopia, are twigs of wood with one end softened in water, and then splayed out to form a daisy like-end, and there is no tooth paste to be seen anywhere.
Claudine, a dentist, and her husband Young, who acted as a dental assistant, provided dental care for 20 to 30 prisoners every day. Most prisoners needed tooth extractions due to severe decay. The older prisoners even had teeth decayed down to stumps. Many patients presented with dentistry needs that are not common to Australian patients, like a young man with a tooth abscess that was draining pus through his cheek.
Part of Young's responsibilities was to provide sterilized instruments using an autoclave (a compressed steam sterilizer, that is effective in destroying HIV and hepatitis viruses); they carried with them from Australia. This was monumental task as the state of repair of electricity wiring and fittings in the prisons left much to be desired. Young, and the Prison Fellowship Ethiopia volunteer, who also acted as their driver, showed resourcefulness in working on the wiring that was dangerous and unreliable, and lived to tell the tale!
Other daunting tasks faced Claudine and Young - including having to address up to 1,200 prisoners and staff at each prison, with no microphone and using an interpreter. They were not deterred and were able to communicate the reasons they were there, and then lived out their faith by caring for the prisoners.
Claudine and Young returned home with a lifetime of experiences crammed into two weeks. They came back knowing that God had protected them during their travels. The team from PF Ethiopia were good travelling companions, especially during the hours spent in driving to the prisons, and also that their gifts had made a difference in the lives of many prisoners. Above all Claudine found the time in Ethiopia very refreshing as it was a reminder of her special sense of call to medicine.
Recently, Daniel Selassie the Executive Director of Prison Fellowship Ethiopia, emailed me and wrote, "Claudine and Young were a blessing for us while they were with us here. The prisoners are so thankful for the wonderful love that they have been shown by Claudine and Young Tsao."
I asked Claudine and Young what was needed if they were to go back to Ethiopia. They responded, "A new autoclave, another dentist and an optometrist."
- Richard Whaley
Can you help supply an autoclave, or if you know someone who can, please call Richard Whaley on 9482 9228.
Prison Fellowship Ethiopia began ministry in 1992 and IS reaching prisoners in 88 prisons and to date have built 44 chapels in the prisons under the leadership of Daniel Selassie... The Ethiopian Ministry of Justice relies on Prison Fellowship Ethiopia to conduct training conferences for prison officials, police, prosecutors and even judges.
Last December, a husband and wife team, Claudine and Young Tsao did just that. Hosted by Prison Fellowship Ethiopia who worked in partnership with PFI's Global Assistance Program (GAP) to plan the visit they travelled from the leafy and prosperous Eastern suburbs of Melbourne to the barren, dusty and overcrowded prisons of Ethiopia.
Working 12 hours every day, sometimes having to make two hour trips by car to get to outlying prisons, they worked in seven of the 88 prisons in Ethiopia - prisons that are unrecognizable in Victoria. Wilkintie prison for example, situated 130km from Addis Ababa, home to 450 men, 12 women and a few children, who spend their days in meaningless drudgery. Crowded and unhygienic conditions foster the spread of disease. Dry pit latrines fill quickly and become unsanitary. Each inmate receives only one and a half litres of water per day for drinking, cooking, bathing, laundry and cleaning teeth. Interestingly, toothbrushes in Ethiopia, are twigs of wood with one end softened in water, and then splayed out to form a daisy like-end, and there is no tooth paste to be seen anywhere.
Claudine, a dentist, and her husband Young, who acted as a dental assistant, provided dental care for 20 to 30 prisoners every day. Most prisoners needed tooth extractions due to severe decay. The older prisoners even had teeth decayed down to stumps. Many patients presented with dentistry needs that are not common to Australian patients, like a young man with a tooth abscess that was draining pus through his cheek.
Part of Young's responsibilities was to provide sterilized instruments using an autoclave (a compressed steam sterilizer, that is effective in destroying HIV and hepatitis viruses); they carried with them from Australia. This was monumental task as the state of repair of electricity wiring and fittings in the prisons left much to be desired. Young, and the Prison Fellowship Ethiopia volunteer, who also acted as their driver, showed resourcefulness in working on the wiring that was dangerous and unreliable, and lived to tell the tale!
Other daunting tasks faced Claudine and Young - including having to address up to 1,200 prisoners and staff at each prison, with no microphone and using an interpreter. They were not deterred and were able to communicate the reasons they were there, and then lived out their faith by caring for the prisoners.
Claudine and Young returned home with a lifetime of experiences crammed into two weeks. They came back knowing that God had protected them during their travels. The team from PF Ethiopia were good travelling companions, especially during the hours spent in driving to the prisons, and also that their gifts had made a difference in the lives of many prisoners. Above all Claudine found the time in Ethiopia very refreshing as it was a reminder of her special sense of call to medicine.
Recently, Daniel Selassie the Executive Director of Prison Fellowship Ethiopia, emailed me and wrote, "Claudine and Young were a blessing for us while they were with us here. The prisoners are so thankful for the wonderful love that they have been shown by Claudine and Young Tsao."
I asked Claudine and Young what was needed if they were to go back to Ethiopia. They responded, "A new autoclave, another dentist and an optometrist."
- Richard Whaley
Can you help supply an autoclave, or if you know someone who can, please call Richard Whaley on 9482 9228.
Prison Fellowship Ethiopia began ministry in 1992 and IS reaching prisoners in 88 prisons and to date have built 44 chapels in the prisons under the leadership of Daniel Selassie... The Ethiopian Ministry of Justice relies on Prison Fellowship Ethiopia to conduct training conferences for prison officials, police, prosecutors and even judges.
Last modified
2006-06-17 09:17 AM