This is a story that I've told in different places, but I don't think I've told it here much.
I definitely talked about my trip to Tanzania this year to cycle from Kilimanjaro to the crater and to raise money for Bridge2Aid.
20 intrepid cyclists raised about £90,000 to fund a programme to train therapists in urban areas of Tanzania to provide dentistry.
The person who runs the whole show there, in terms of the clinical output, the safety and the planning, is Doctor Chicco.
Doctor Chicco's in the picture above.
We have helped to support him in his work for the last 3 years, since he came out of government employment (which pays £325 per month after deductions). He's now part-funded by Bridge2Aid, via The Campbell Clinic, to be able to provide the work that makes an enormous difference to hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people in rural Tanzania.
When we first met in a hotel in Mwanza, in the North of Tanzania, this year, I gave him an envelope. It was an invitation to come to The Campbell Clinic in Nottingham to meet the team that he actually works with, and for us to pay the bills to get him here (he would never be able to fund it himself).
And so, this week, Chicco arrived. On Monday, he landed in Manchester and, because he is a Manchester United fan??, Tom and Nancy from our clinic took him to Old Trafford and the museum.
He came to us on the Tuesday evening and stayed at my place with my family for two nights. He presented a peer-review lecture about dentistry from another world on the Wednesday evening.
What happened was that everyone who was able to sit in that room was entirely humbled.
This guy from Africa, on his first trip out of Tanzania, came and spoke to a British audience in fluent English.
He talked about the work involved in setting up the NGO, which is called THEDI, with him and his friends after funding was lost for rural dentistry stuff.
He talked about how undervalued dentistry is in Tanzania, and he talked about how the dental school in the capital of Tanzania qualifies 10 dentists per year to add to the 500 that already exist in Tanzania to look after the 60 million people.
Not only that, though, during this time, Chicco has set up a private clinic.
I went there in February.
It's small and basic, as Tanzanian dentistry is, and so there's no iOS scanner (yet), no crazy sterilisation room, no intraoral cameras, no big televisions. It's just a dental place in Tanzania. But in the space next door to the clinic, he's now set up a dental laboratory, and in the space next door to that, a 'dental shop'. This is a fledgling dental supply company for other dentists in Tanzania.
Chico got the contract with Bridge2Aid to provide the work for the charity by insisting on going to the government himself and telling them the story about how badly served the urban areas were.
He created opportunities where none existed.
He created a practice where none existed, and a lab and a dental supply company, and positively influenced the lives of his fellow country people as part of the overall work that he does.
There is a name for people like Chicco.
They're called entrepreneurs.
We have given people the wrong name in the United Kingdom.
Entrepreneurs don't make money; they create opportunity and positive difference.
Chicco is an entrepreneur to look up to, to be inspired by, to be proud of.
In the meeting, one of our young dental nurses asked a question: “You inspired us; who inspired you?” (Great question.)
He couldn't think of anyone who inspired him to do this, because he inspired himself.
Watch this space, because that man is changing the world, and we are hanging on to his coattails.
Blog Post Number - 4689
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