Henry Schein Dental joined forces in March for two days with Dentaid and Asylum Link Merseyside to help up to twenty refugees in Liverpool with their oral health.
The successful delivery of the Refugee Outreach Program was a result of a close partnership from all parties, who worked together to promote and book the emergency appointments, organised sign ups and provided the required dental material to help the refugees.
Treatments were carried out by clinical volunteers in a mobile dental hub, a bus provided by Dentaid and financed by Henry Schein Cares for the two days, in order to provide attendees on site with free oral health check-ups and any necessary dental procedures.
“Moving to the UK in 2006 from a small town in Iraq, to reunite with my refugee father, I immediately fell into a state of gratitude for the things that became easily accessible to me. As a Henry Schein team member, I wanted to help in some way. I began discussing with the Henry Schein Cares team in the UK to build the Refugee Outreach Project with the help of Dentaid,” said Belan Saied, Sales Development Representative at Henry Schein One and the driving force for the Refugee Outreach Programme. “After a year of planning, we visited Asylum Link Merseyside, where we were supported by the staff to assist refugees in the area with emergency dental issues. We were able to see patients that have never had any access to dental care or were suffering with severe dental issues.”
“I have two lasting images in my head: one was of a service user with his arm around our interpreter as he exited the van, saying thank you repeatedly, and the other was of a patient high-fiving one of our staff after his treatment. For people who society largely regards as disposable, this not only helped with their health 
care, but showed what a caring and compassionate bunch we can be when we put our minds to it – it helped people from top to bottom. Thanks again.” said Ewan Roberts, Centre Manager for Asylum Link Merseyside.
“It has been an amazing experience that we were happy to support. It was a pleasure to join forces with Asylum Link Merseyside and Henry Schein to make of this fantastic project a great success,” said Sarah Hutchins from Dentaid.
The Refugee Outreach Programme was supported by team members of Henry Schein Cares, the company’s global corporate social responsibility programme. It stands on five pillars: empowering team Schein to reach their potential, advancing health equity and expanding access to care for underserved communities, accelerating environmental sustainability, strengthening, and diversifying our supply chain, and maintaining strong ethical governance.
Health care activities supported by Henry Schein Cares focus on four main areas:
(1) wellness, treatment, prevention, and education;
(2) capacity building;
(3) emergency preparedness and disaster response; and
(4) health system strengthening.
