The Madriz project is incredibly lucky to be working with dental student, Mary Becker, who has been giving dental charlas with AMIGOS participants for the past week and a half. Mary is from Houston, Texas and trained with the Houston chapter of AMIGOS. Mary even served on the Houston training staff with Project Director, Jarrod Ford. She is currently in her third year of dental school at the University Of Texas School Of Dentistry.

Mary was an AMIGOS participant in Chontales, Nicaragua in 2007 and 2008. Partnering with Plan Nicaragua and Colgate, the Chontales, Nicaragua project focused on public health and children’s rights. Mary believes that working with Colgate in Nicaragua is what inspired her to pursue a career in dentistry. Seven years later, she can still remember facilitating her first campamento on dental health.

After AMIGOS, Mary went on to do a Global Dental Brigade in Honduras in 2012. This past year over spring break, Mary went to Guatemala with a team of 50+ dental students/professionals to facilitate dental workshops. Mary believes that her love of dentistry and her desire to be of service to others began when she was a participant with AMIGOS.

This past spring, Mary wrote a proposal to AMIGOS in order to join the Madriz, Nicaragua project. She also solicited in-kind donations of toothbrushes, toothpaste, and floss from various companies like Colgate, Crest, Oral-B, Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, and Sunstar. Mary took her dental boards on July 2nd (and passed!!) and headed off to Nicaragua 2 days later. She arrived with the second group of AMIGOS participants in Managua on July 6th.

Thus far, Mary has visited Chaguite, San Ramon, San Juan de Somoto, Aguas Calientes, Quebrada de Agua, and San Lucas. Tomorrow, Mary is headed to Ducualí. Mary has been teaching about cavity formation, and the importance of taking care of both baby teeth and permanent teeth with the help of AMIGOS participants in each community. She also covers brushing and flossing techniques. Each student that attends her dental charla receives a new toothbrush and toothpaste.