Timorese tykes set for top teeth as schools program gets scholarship boost

An oral health program for schoolchildren in Timor L’Este — where an estimated one in seven rural children has painful infections, broken teeth and abscesses — will receive a boost from a new University of Melbourne scholarship.

The inaugural Elizabeth Waters Memorial Travel Scholarship, which recognises recipients for excellence in their field of public health, will link Timorese dental nurse Ana Tilman with mentor Dr Martin Hall, of the North Richmond Community Health Centre.

Dr Hall’s program, Kose Nehan (Tetum for ‘toothbrushing’), currently links dental nurses with eight schools in the district of Aileu to distribute toothpaste and toothbrushes and skill up teachers to promote toothbrushing and prevent infections.

The Timorese Government and the National University of Timor-Leste are considering expanding it to other districts in Timor.

“Dental nurses and schools play a critical role, especially in rural areas, because Timor has only five dentists to serve the whole country, and only one dentist outside the capital, Dili,” said Dr Hall, who is also an honorary research fellow at the University’s Jack Brockhoff Child Health and Wellbeing Program.

“As project manager, Ana is critical to the program’s success, working with other nurses to assist teachers with preventative care, make sure they are stocked up with toothpaste and toothbrushes, perform extractions, and keep in touch with teachers to follow up on their progress and make sure everything is going well,” he said.

The scholarship is funding a study trip to Australia, where Ms Tilman will be based at the University’s School of Population and Global Health.

She will receive research support and training on program evaluation and improvement from the Centre for Health Equity.

A second scholarship was awarded to Jodie Doyle, managing editor of Cochrane Public Health Reviews, which evaluate the impact of population-level public health interventions.

The scholarship will allow Ms Doyle, who is based at the University’s School of Population and Global Health, to travel to South Africa in 2017 to attend the Cochrane Colloquium combined with other evidence networks at the first Global Evidence Summit.

The scholarship pays homage to the late Professor Elizabeth Waters, inaugural Director of the Jack Brockhoff Child and Wellbeing Program and champion of public health.

The program’s current director, Professor Lisa Gibbs, said Ms Waters’ friends and family established the scholarship to honour her two greatest passions: child public heath and travel.