adminThe Rhodesia Herald,
February 14, 1970
THE first African dental clinic to be established in a Rhodesian African township – the Methodist dental clinic in Salisbury’s Highfield African township – will be dedicated tomorrow.
The clinic, which will be run by the United Methodist Church in Rhodesia (American), has modern equipment worth more than £3 000.
It is situated at the Machipisa shopping centre and is open to anyone on week days except Thursday.
The district superintendent of the church, the Reverend Thomas L Curtis, said that the United Methodist Church was interested in exploring the needs for medical work in towns.
Mr Curtis said his church was running hospitals and clinics in the country. He said the church had six doctors, two of them African.
“The church receives medical grants from churches overseas and also from the Rhodesian Government,” he said.
“Government’s grant towards medical institutions for the year ending March 31, 1969, were about £11 000 and the overseas churches’ assistance for this year (1970) is £22 411.”
Mr Curtis said when grants were received, they were distributed to hospitals at Nyadire, Old Umtali Mission and Mutambara Mission.
“In addition, the churches overseas give grants for the salaries of missionaries.”
Mr Curtis said the Methodist dental clinic in Highfield was a non-profit service agency.
“The church is spending more money on medical work than in other fields,” he said.
The dentist at the clinic is Dr Margret Nelvig, a Swede, who first came to Rhodesia in 1964 and worked at Nyadire Mission until 1968 when she returned to Sweden for a year’s holiday. She returned to Rhodesia in the later part of last year.
Dr Nelvig said yesterday: “The clinic is equipped with modern machinery comprising of a dental unit, which has a fan, an operating light, an electric engine, a high-speed drill and a sucking machine.
“We have an X-ray machine, a dark room, a compressor which goes with the unit, a heat steriliser and everything required for a modern dental clinic,” she said.
Dr Nelvig, who also studied orthodontics in England, has an African dental assistant she trained while she worked at Nyadire.
She said that the dental clinic, which was at Nyadire Methodist Centre, had been transferred to Highfield. The other dental clinic was in Umtali.
LESSONS FOR TODAY
Good oral health can reduce the risk of many diseases like endocarditis, stroke and heart disease. It is critical for people to have access to good dental care.
Dental care can be very expensive, so, decentralising the provision of dental services especially to areas such as high density suburbs and rural areas is critical in promoting dental care at affordable rates.
Churches have and continue to play a big role in providing interventions that are targeted at poor people in areas such as health and education. Such interventions are critical in complementing Government efforts in providing self-actualised lives to citizens from all walks of life.
Online Reporter