Dear Friend,

Thank you for being part of the KinderSmile Foundation village! With your continued support, this spring we continued to provide access to oral health care for New Jersey's most vulnerable populations at our three Dental Homes and four community programs. On behalf of the community, in order to make an enduring change, we continued to advocate for the expansion of services on a state, national, and international level.

We are truly grateful to YOU, our donors, grantors, volunteers, and friends who are all part of the KinderSmile Foundation village. YOU are the first to receive this newsletter, telling the impactful story of KinderSmile Foundation’s 18th Annual Global Outreach Trip to Uganda and Tanzania. We are proud of our professional and pre-dental student volunteers who joined this outreach trip, for their incredibly hard work and passion for public health dentistry. We return with immense gratitude for the communities we served, for their kindness and humanity.

Your continued support helps us invest in our patients and families holistically. Together, we can work towards our vision of a future where every child has access to a dentist and preventable dental diseases are eradicated. Your steadfast support and generosity are truly appreciated! #ItTakesAVillage 

All the Blessings,

Nicole McGrath-Barnes, DDS, FACD

Founder & CEO

Michal Herman, DDS, FACD

COO

The Latest from KinderSmile Foundation

KinderSmile Foundation's 18th Annual Global Outreach Trip to

Uganda and Tanzania

With humility, we can assert that KinderSmile Foundation’s 18th Annual Global Outreach Trip to Uganda and Tanzania gave us a new perspective and reaffirmed why we chose Public Health Dentistry as our careers, and why we continue to do what we do.

After a long two day journey, we arrived in Bweyale, Uganda, where last year we partnered with Dr. Jane Mandera at Medical Chambers, and set up a Dental Home for the community. In their nature, the Ugandan community is welcoming, respectful, joyful, and full of humanity.

The village was as we remembered. A little boy selling eggs on the side of the road. Tall beautiful women in colorful fabrics carrying supplies or water on their heads. People in kiosks trying to sell simple objects. Sidewalk benches with gathering community members. And so much kindness.

It was impressive and rewarding to see the progress the Dental Home made since our visit last year. What we take for granted here in the US as necessities in dental care, are items that took us a year to secure in Uganda. With generous donations and fundraising efforts, we were able to purchase a proper dental chair, furnished with a high speed and low speed handpieces, a water source, an ultrasonic scaler, suction, and a light. The simple things.

On the first service day the community gathered in a Trading Center. Many remembered us from last year, and waited in line for hours. Serving nearly 100 patients that first day, in the scorching heat and crowded space, using imperfect instruments, drawn anesthesia, and pool chairs, was exhilarating. We could have continued indefinitely. Patients kept coming. The beautiful thing was that when we had to end the day, we simply asked them to return the following day to the Dental Home in Bweyale. The legacy we created last year to be able to provide continuity of care was happening in real time.

We are accustomed to abundance, or even over-abundance. We are used to having the right instrument available for every procedure, gloves at an unlimited supply, an autoclave, carpules of anesthesia ready to be used, and radiographs. We learned very quickly how to work differently, efficiently, and use the minimum that we had to take people out of pain, to buy time, to restore functionality. We will carry that forward as one of many life lessons we acquired. No complaints.

The following two days we were able to provide diagnostic, preventive, and comprehensive care right in the Dental Home, KinderSmile Community Oral Health Center Uganda. The appreciation from the dental team, the medical team, and the community at large throughout our stay was immeasurable. Bweyale, Uganda, hosts a refugee camp, where mud houses and tents are homes to many of the patients we served. The community is composed of people from various countries and areas, speaking many different dialects and languages, and not all familiar with English. But the language of gratitude was universal to them all.

We visited a school site in Uganda, to provide oral health education to over 200 children, akin to our school-based KinderSmile Oral Health Program here in New Jersey. Our pre dental student volunteers, members of KinderSmile Foundation’s Community Service Learning Program, came out of their shell. With confidence, they conducted a comprehensive lesson about oral health, prevention, and nutrition. The children were exemplary, polite, and knowledgeable. They asked unexpected questions — What bacteria causes gingivitis? Why is it not advised to brush with ash? Should all sugars be eliminated or only artificial sugars?

In Tanzania we visited the School of Dentistry at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) in Dar es Salaam. We partnered with Kinywa Salama Initiative, whose mission is well aligned with that of KinderSmile Foundation. Kinywa Salama Initiative was founded by dental students, and like KSF, they are passionate about public health dentistry. We provided mentorship to support the growth of their organization, and guidance as they started their oral health outreach program. Together, we provided oral health education and dental screenings to 120 children. 

The mentorship program of the dental school ambassadors of Kinywa Salama Initiative is reminiscent of KinderSmile Foundation’s Community Service Learning Program, and the volunteers from both of our organizations benefited from their shared time in the community. We look forward to continuing this international partnership, envisioning a connection between our new partners and dental students from the collaboration between their dental school and the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine.

On our last day we had the privilege of attending the Tanzania Dental Expo, dedicated to advancing dental technology, training, and oral health care services in Tanzania. We continued to provide invaluable mentorship and guidance to our newest community partners from Kinywa Salama Initiative on how to seek support and in-kind donations to sustain and expand their outreach program.

We connected with global leaders in public health dentistry, including Dr. Gemma Berege, President of the Tanzania Dental Association, advocating for expanded access to oral health care in underserved communities. This was an empowering moment for both the KSF and KSI teams, and a perfect way to end the trip.

As the leading nonprofit organization promoting Public Health Dentistry in the state of New Jersey, KinderSmile Foundation bridges the gap in access to oral health care at our three Dental Homes and four community programs. Through direct services, community collaborations, data evaluation, mentorship opportunities, workforce development, and advocacy, we advance our vision of a future where every child has access to a dentist and preventable dental diseases are eradicated. For our second time in Africa, we are proud to have touched upon all aspects of our organization, leaving behind a legacy of direct services, a link to a Dental Home, community programs, volunteerism, mentorship, advocacy, and expanded access to care! 

There is a stark juxtaposition between the visible poverty and hard physical labor done by families, including children, and the serenity of the lush greenery of Uganda and its parks or the Indian Ocean water in Tanzania. It made us continually reflect about humility, gratitude, and humanity. About the lack of competition, resistance, and entitlement. About respect, courage, and the thirst to learn and be mentored.

From the visit in Uganda last year, to the improvements of the Dental Home this year, the school-based community programs, the visit to the dental school, the partnership with a mentorship organization, and the Dental Expo, the trip culminated with a vision of hope of what could be. It was true Public Health Dentistry in all its glory.

On behalf of the children and families in Uganda and Tanzania, thank you to our volunteers Dr. Meena Jetley, Dr. Tal Kohn, Logan Jones, Amir McGrath, and Trisha Jetley, who joined us on this journey, along with our international CSLP volunteers Simon, Peter, and Gabriel.

After months of meticulous planning and generous donations, we were able to collect over $18,000 of clinical supplies and dental equipment. Thank you to Dr. Kohn and Trisha for their incredibly successful fundraising efforts!

We are grateful to our corporate donors: America's ToothFairy, Crest, Delta Dental of New Jersey and Connecticut, Eli Stuart at DC Dental, Liberty Dental Plan, and Wonderful Dental, for their generous gifts of clinical supplies. Your contributions made a long lasting impact abroad! Asante Sana!

Please join our efforts of changing the landscape of

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To learn more about donations of stock or planned giving,

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