Through “Sonrisas por la Paz” program, executed between the Victims Unit and the Bucaramanga Section of Santo Tomás University, 19 victims of the conflict living in the metropolitan area of the Santander capital had access, free of charge, to total dental prostheses and partial carried out by professionals of this university faculty.
These days are held quarterly, however, due to the health emergency that the country is going through due to COVID-19, only one could be carried out this year. It is expected that in 2021 these brigades will be reactivated so that more victims of conflict in Santander can access these oral health benefits.
Milena Sánchez, displaced from the municipality of Cimitarra, was one of the victims who received a complete prosthesis. “The truth is very good that they do these days because teeth are one of the most important things in the body, I feel grateful because I can now smile more calmly and without pain. Thanks to the Unit and Universidad Santo Tomás”, she said.
Regarding “Sonrisas por la Paz” program, Laura Villegas, coordinator of the Cooperation Group of the Unit, specified that this is a strategy that is developed within the framework cooperation agreement No. 1388, signed since 2012 between Universidad Santo Tomás, sectional Bucaramanga and the Territorial Directorate of the Unit for Victims in Santander. She also explained that the aforementioned agreement was ratified between June and July 2020.
“In this program, Santo Tomás University provides free full and partial dental prostheses to the victim population. They generally make three deliveries a year. In 2020, due to a pandemic, only one delivery was made that benefited 19 people included in the Single Registry of Victims of Bucaramanga metropolitan area. They registered at the service points and after the review, the suitable people were selected”, she underlined.
(Fin/MAS/CMC/LMY/AEB)
