Early in 2024 Kelly Antosh, our community oral health lead, approached the team at PCF with an idea for a children's book, written in Swahili, teaching children and families about oral hygiene.

Kelle's sister Heather,a talented artist and daycare owner wanted to find a way to help PCF's programs in Tanzania.Heather started creating, and Kelly began the challenging task of writing cultural and age-appropriate messaging for the book.Kelly was helped by our COO Said Msabaha and PCF Tanzania board member Dr.Deogratius Kilasara.

It was decided that the book should be launched in Luhombero. PCF already worked in this area and its remote location meant that people there had very little ,or no, previous oral health education.

The book came together beautifully and it was decided that four of our community dental workers, Ally, Richard, Beatrice, and Theresia would go teach the community of Luhombero ,then give the book to families. It was also decided that this project would be perfect for research as this group had little previous exposure and therefore could be assessed, with surveys, to see if the educational sessions and the book were successful in teaching families preventive oral health.