The Sunday News
Nigel Siziba, Sunday News Reporter
THEY say that a smile is the key that fits the lock to everybody’s heart, smiles lighten up the world but what happens when one is deprived of a confident smile?
As a way of giving back to the community, the John Landa Nkomo Foundation has embarked on a programme of teeth cleaning to the Tsholotsho community.
Mr Jabulani Nkomo, the son of the late former Vice President John Landa Nkomo, said they did this as a way of advancing the vision of his late father.
“My father was a person who always wanted to help people so I thought as the Foundation it would be wise to take that route and restore some smiles among the people of Tsholotsho.
“The actual cause of tooth decaying in this area is not yet known but we are suspecting it is some kind of underground water that people drink. We grew up like that.
“As a foundation we felt that we needed to offer our help as children grow up with the discomfort of brown teeth and that kills their self-confidence,” he said.
The programme targets youths.
“We are targeting young boys and girls, not that we are excluding adults, it is because the young ones will not be too infected and their chances of having white teeth back is high.
“We took six people from Tsholotsho as our sample and the chemical seems to be working and we are now looking forward to working on more people,” said Nkomo.
He also said the programme will go a long way in empowering the girl child.
“Basically this programme will bring confidence back especially to the girls who found it harder than boys to smile and naturally girls always want to be on point,” he said.
The dentist who has been doing the tooth cleaning is Dr Dudu Sibanda and the chemical they were using was donated by a team of dentists based in South Africa.
