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Outreach Trips
Tampico, Mexico
Patzun, Guatemala
Accra, Ghana
Puerto Plata, D.R
Damascus, Syria
photos
see our flickr group!
archive
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what is BOCA?
Buffalo Outreach and Community Assistance (BOCA) is a dental outreach organization that recruits students and faculty at the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine as well as dental professionals to promote dental education and implement free dental care in areas of the world that lack adequate access to care. Since 2003, BOCA has organized over 100 Buffalo dental students and 25 faculty members to lead over 15 dental mission trips both abroad and in various United States communities. In all, BOCA has seen 4,611 patients, has performed over 2,557 dental restorations, and extracted over 4,076 teeth! For those in private practice, this is the equivalent of over $1,014,940 in free dental work. This, taken with educating people on the importance of oral health, is our modest contribution to improving the oral and general healthcare for those who might not otherwise have adequate access.
If you would like to get involved or make a contribution, please see our contact page!
BOCA NEWS
Making Donations Online
This is just a quick note to let everybody know that you can make donations to BOCA online. If you or somebody you know is interested in giving this way, mosey on over to the contact page and follow the instructions therein.
Info on Financial Aid
Kevin Ryan spoke tonight regarding Financial Aid. For those who missed the meeting, here are the basics: - You don't have to take out additional loan money for the trip if you don't want to...but if you do, it will be in the form of Federal Unsubsidized, Graduate Plus Loans, or another depending on your own situation. Since the maximum for Federal Loans is $38,500/yr, you may have to take out a loan that has a higher interest rate and immediate payback, etc. You will eventually get an email from Financial Aid once they get more of an estimate as to how much of a budget increase you would get. But: DO NOT CONTACT FINANCIAL AID FOR AN APPOINTMENT BEFORE THEY SEND YOU AN EMAIL!!!
- The cost for the trip will come on your student bill and the money will be dispersed to you before it's due and before you go on the trip...
Any other questions, contact Kevin Ryan in 104 Harriman or Sandy Flash in the Dean's office
Meeting
Reminder: There is a meeting for Financial Aid with Kevin Ryan this Thursday at 5pm in 356 Squire. There will be a meeting for all Tampico volunteers immediately following.
Trip Info
People have been emailing me as to trip details, so I thought I would post a brief summary of each trip as far as I know it. 1) Guatemala, June - Small group of 5 students and 2 doctors. Room and board in a small convent where you live with the locals. The clinic is located in the convent which is located in the temperate mounainous town of Patzun. Trip includes a one day trip to a beautiful lake and market village. Tons of exo and operative experience and individualized attention. 2) Puerto Plata DR, June Larger trip of approximately 20 students, 4 residents, 4 docs. Stay at an all inclusive resort that includes all meals, snacks, drink, and cocktails. Resort atmosphere with pool and casino on site. Travel daily to the clinic where there is plenty of opportunity to get operative, preventative and oral surgery experience and play with the local children. At the end of the trip there is also the opportunity to go on a local day trip or beach it for a day. 3) Syria, June I did not attend this trip but it is a small trip organized by Dr. Shibly and two other doctors. Students work in the clinics at the local dental school and also travel to different towns offering treatment to the locals. Dental experiences include periodontal surgeries among the more basic treatments. Students give lectures to the local towns and dental school on various aspects of American outreach dentistry. Vast cultural and travel opportunities exist since this is a longer trip. 4) Mexico, March Again I didn’t go on this mission but it is comparable in size and living arrangements to the DR mission. You stay in an all inclusive resort and travel daily to the clinic. I know that the students appreciated the amount of OS and Ops experience that they received. Day trip available at the end of the trip. 5) Ghana, March You should ask Nora or Caroline or Dan A. about this one. Very rural setting where you literally have the opportunity to provide dental treatment under the African sky. Most treatment is limited to extractions. Dr. Nylander and another doc usually lead the trip which includes the opportunity to live amongst the locals and visit with Dr. Nylander’s family. Travel opportunities available if you want to stay a bit longer (last year they visited Egypt!). Hope that helps! Email me at lmkeck@buffalo.edu with any questions. Lindsey
Fruit Prices
Hey Guys, Fruit prices are listed below. All orders and checks (made out to UB Foundation) are due to Amy Dawli (Tier A) by Thanksgiving Break. Remember that all the money you earn goes directly towards your trip (approx: $10/box in profit). Fruit will be delivered right before the December Holiday Break. Happy Selling. Navel Oranges: Large Box (56-80 pieces): $25 Small Box (28-40 pieces): $18 Juice Oranges: Large Box (64-100 pieces): $25 Small Box (32-50 pieces): $18 Tangerines: Small Box (50-60 pieces): $21 Red Grapefruit: Large Box (32-40 pieces): $25 Small Box (16-20 pieces): $18 Tangelos: Large Box (64-100 pieces): $25 Small Box (32-50 pieces): $18 Red Apples: Large Box: N/A Small Box (32-50 pieces): $24 D'Anjou Pears: Small Box (30-50 pieces): $24 Navel & Grapefruit Mix: $21 Holiday Trio (Apples, Navels, Grapefruit): $25 Citrus Variety Pack (Tangerines, Navels, Grapefruit): $25 Fresh Fruit Sampler (Apples, Pears, Grapefruit, Navels, Tangerines): $25
Meeting Minutes, 11-6-06
Hey Guys! This is my first ever Blog, so I hope it goes through. As far as Mondays meeting goes, things to sum up: 1) Congrats new officers. I am sure you will rock 2) Fruit sales are due before you leave for thanksgiving. Give all checks and order forms to Amy Dawli (tier A). Checks should be made out to UB foundation. Remember, you will earn about $10 per box towards your individual trip so its a pretty good deal. 3) Application forms have been handed out for this years trips. Give them to Fab by the assigned date. Keep in mind that you will owe a $200 deposit BEFORE christmas break, so make sure to buy dollar pabts blue ribbons from now on to save your loan money. 4) Color me Happy fundraiser is on. Contest descriptions have been sent to local schools so we will be expecting drawings soon so that we can make our holiday cards. We will be following up with outreach at the winning schools in December. Thats all for now. Hope everyone has a fun weekend! Lindsey
Welcome to the new BOCA website!
So this is the new web home for BOCA, I hope you like it! If you have suggestions or find something that dosen't work, please let me know. This is just a first draft, so the more imput the better ;). a few of my thoughts: - I would like to get one person that has gone on each trip to do a little write up about where the group went and what they did. Then i can use a few pictures and finish the pages for each trip. - You'll notice on the left a fancy little flash link to a potential photo site (flickr) that i think we should use. Flickr is pretty sweet, and one of the nicer things about it is that you can make groups where you can share photos. So i set up a BOCA group here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/boca/ anybody with a flickr account can add photos, so it will be easy for people that go on the trips to share their photos with everybody also, pretty much all the text on the site is just copied and pasted from the BOCA pamphlet. which is cool... but i think we should re-write much of it since we have more room on the website (esp. the mission statement). enjoy!
want to join our flickr group?
Share pictures you've taken on a BOCA trip! You'll need a flickr account to contribute. Just contact the webmonkey to get an invitation to the group. Once you're in, adding photos is easy:
1) click on the "organize" tab at the top of your account page. this brings you to the organize page. all your photos are ligned up along the bottom of the page
2) click on the "your groups" tab
3) drag photos from the bottom to the boca group and you're done
don't forget to add tags for where and when the photos were taken!
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