Summary Report of a BNF Volunteer Dentist

A renowned German Dentist, Mr. Frank Schneehage, was here in Bhutan from August 5th to 17th.

While in Bhutan, he treated about 106 nuns in 3 different nunneries. His programme to cover the Eastern part of Bhutan had to be cancelled due to heavy rain fall, landslides, and road blocks while he was here.

However, he was able to devote his time instead in treating the nuns in Walakha  nunnery in Punakha, Zilukha nunnery, and Hongtsho nunnery in Thimphu. He was quite overwhelmed to see how many nuns have unattended dental problems. He did what he could within the 12 days he had been here and helped the nuns tremendously. He wants to come back next year to reach out to other nunneries in the remote parts as planned originally and also to do follow ups on some of the nuns he treated this time. But we will have to wait and see if we can afford to have him again.

Although Mr. Schneehage, paid his own air tickets to Bhutan we had to look for sponsors to help with the local expenses such as accommodation and transportation.

We are very grateful to Dr. Schneehage for providing his services and FireFly Mission in Singapore for supporting his local expenses this time. We hope to be able to find such supporters for his future visits so that he can cover the dental health care for the nuns throughout the country.

We have posted some photos of dental treatment undertaken in the nunneries along with details of dental treatment and issues of the nuns that he treated.

Reported by Dr. Tashi Zangmo, Executive Director, BNF