On Thanksgiving Day, while most of us celebrated the holiday with family, friends, food, and football, Dr. Donn Winokur began a 10-day dental mission trip to Zambia in Southern Africa. Dr. Donn will be providing dental services to patients in refugee camps throughout the country on behalf of International Medical Relief.

Dr. Donn’s journey to Zambia began at the Newark Liberty International Airport with a 12-hour flight to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. From there, Dr. Donn spent another seven hours in the air en route to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia.

Dr. Donn has a servant’s heart and has cared for patients in the community of Ocean County for over 40 years! When an opportunity presents itself to put his passion for dentistry to work in underserved communities abroad, he always leaps at the chance to help every child have access to quality dental care, no matter where they live.

Friday, November 29, 2019:

Not long after arriving in Zambia on Thanksgiving Day, Dr. Donn got right to work in the capital city of Lusaka, the largest growing city in Africa.

The next day, Dr. Donn traveled to Solwezi, a town in Northwestern Zambia. He was accompanied by three EMTs, as several nurses and physicians participating in the mission trip had flight delays. He and the team forged on and began serving patients at the Meheba Refugee Settlement where over 50,000 Congolese refugees call home. The second day, Dr. Donn traveled to a neighboring refugee settlement that serves over 20,000 people from Uganda.

Tuesday, December 3, 2019:

Who says doctors don’t make house calls anymore? Dr. Donn and the team paid a visit to homes in a local Zambian village and provided dental work to its families. This isn’t Dr. Donn’s first time serving patients abroad, as this past summer, he and other doctors from the Dentistry for Children team served communities in Ecuador who were in need of dental care.

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Today Dr. Donn returned to the Meheba Refugee Settlement in Zambia’s North Western Province. The settlement itself is more than 177,000 acres in size and home to nearly 50,000 refugees at its peak. Many of the refugees have fled their homelands in neighboring countries due to civil war, violence, famine, or disease. Not far from Meheba lies the Lumwana Copper Mine. Dr. Donn and the team visited the mining camp and provided treatment to workers and residents as well.

As we approach the holiday season here in the United States, it’s very important to take into consideration how others in the world live and that many of us are incredibly fortunate. It can be far too easy to lose perspective and take things for granted, like having a dentist in your hometown.

Thursday, December 5, 2019:

Today was a very busy day for Dr. Donn and his colleagues, as they set up shop in the Meheba A Clinic to see students of the camp’s Primary and Seconday schools. While Dr. Donn was the lead doctor in charge of dentistry and oral health, his fellow health professionals set up stations in their respective specialties such as malaria testing, eye examinations for reading glasses, diabetes testing, wound care, and general vital sign screenings.

Friday, December 6, 2019:

Today’s work site was a dental clinic inside the Lumwana Hospital attached to the refugee camp. On the morning commute, Dr. Donn snapped some photos of the local shopping center and pharmacy, and also stopped to fuel up at the local gas station.

In one small way, Zambia is just like New Jersey – they don’t let you pump your own gas!

Stay tuned for more updates on Dr. Donn’s dental mission trip abroad.

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