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Spear Education

FOUNDATION
Spear Foundation Storyline

January 28, 2011 (1ST DRAFT)


Spear Foundation, January 28, 2011, page 2 of 5

The foundation of a Foundation

Ever since the first human beings gestured to each other in firelight, storytelling has been the
means by which people have shared their visions and achieved great things.
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There is an opportunity right now to engage, connect, grow, and build an organization that
reaches out and leverages all that Spear has in the service of others. The vision seems big: 1000
faculty club dentists giving 1 week a year to provide dental care in the developing world. But
really, is it? Maybe, in fact, that is just the beginning.

This story is the foundation of the Foundation. It will help unite everyone behind a clear vision.
It will inform internal processes and communications, and engage those who may come alongside
to understand the larger purpose and desires of the organization.

Further it will articulate the foundation’s uniqueness more effectively to its audiences outside the
organization. It will help the leaders communicate its perspective and purpose to both the
stakeholders, and those the organization wishes to draw in.

This story reads like a manifesto. It’s the battle cry in the face of poverty in the developing world.
It should inspire, unite, and possibly make the reader a little uncomfortable. It will have
succeeded if it gathers a group of passionate people, and sets them on a course of transformation,
both in themselves, and the communities they choose to serve.

The final chapters have yet to be written – they will come from those involved as they grasp the
vision as their own and carry it forward.

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Spear Foundation, January 28, 2011, page 3 of 5

Dentistry as an ‘excuse’ to eradicate poverty


When one thinks about the needs and issues in the developing world, bad teeth hardly make the
top ten or even top twenty. Systemic concerns of poor nutrition, lack of education, insecurity,
war, and disease all easily rank further up the list.

So, why bother? Why spend time, money, and energy on basic, reactive dentistry when there are
much bigger problems to tackle? What difference will pulling teeth and handing out
toothbrushes make in the end?

Abscess and cavities aren’t the problem themselves they are symptoms. Poor oral health can be
traced back to issues of nutrition, water, and/or hygiene. A little girl with a tooth ache that stops
her from sleeping and being able to concentrate in school is definitely in need of help, but
possibly her bad tooth is just the tip of an iceberg.

What if the dental work was not an end unto itself, but a means, a way in? What if the clinics
were the initial engagement with a community? Or, as Evelyn Paiz asked, “what if Dentistry was
an ‘excuse’ to eradicate poverty?”

What does Poverty look like?


Poverty has many faces. It’s most easily recognized by what is lacking: inadequate housing,
money, unemployment, poor nutrition, etc. But far more insidious is the poverty that you can’t
see. Social isolation, shame, fear, humiliation, depression, loneliness, desperation, all work
together to erode what many of us take for granted.

Poverty creates negative cultural norms that are ingrained to a point where the idea of changing
can become more daunting than staying put. Poverty rarely is a single generation phenomenon.
The cycle is almost impervious. “It’s the way it has always been”. There are often huge barriers
to change, either economic or physical, but what’s really lacking is the will to be different. It
becomes the worldview.

“80% of success is showing up”


Woody Allen

Showing up
With an understanding of poverty it’s not hard to empathize with Dr. Matt O’Shea’s description
of his time providing acute care dental work in Guatemala “I was frustrated by how much we did,
yet how little we accomplished”.
Spear Foundation, January 28, 2011, page 4 of 5

However, Matt showed up, and while he doesn’t think so, he accomplished more than he
realized. By providing needed care, even if it meant some losing their teeth, he gained the respect
and trust of a community simply because he was there and helped.

Earning the right to be heard


As in any relationship, you need to earn the right to be heard. No matter how bad off a
community is it is unlikely that they will be receptive to anyone just walking in and telling them
what they need to do to improve their lives. It’s also highly unlikely that anyone just walking in
will have any idea, really, what it will take to help those folks improve their lives. Yet, over and
over, this is how development is done, or at least attempted.

By Matt spending days amongst the people, often in their most vulnerable moments, he earned
his right to observe, ask questions, and learn. He could now spend time finding out from the
leaders what the issues were in the community, and what ways they have thought of themselves to
solve their own problems.

Instead of coming to conclusions, he could ask them what they are most proud of, what their
dreams were, and where they needed partners to see the dreams become real. He could do all this
because he first pulled some teeth and handed out some toothbrushes. His dentistry is an‘excuse’
to begin a much bigger conversation.

Where do Matt’s come from?


Spear Education is a gathering place for dentists who are engaged in bettering themselves and
their practices. Spear is where the Matt’s can be found.

On many levels, Spear dentists are prime candidates. First, they have the skills. Second, they have
the resources in time and money. Third, they are predisposed to wanting more from life. And
fourth, Spear has earned the right to be heard, and thus can ask with a reasonable certainty of an
affirmative answer.

However the most important reason is the least obvious, dentists need the engagement of the
developing world as much as it needs them. It is a tremendous privilege to be invited into
someone else’s world. The perspective of the poor is a wisdom all in the developed world can
benefit from.
Spear Foundation, January 28, 2011, page 5 of 5

Dentistry might be the ‘excuse’, the reason to go, but once there, in the village, surrounded by
kids, chickens, dogs, the smell of cooking fires, and the chatter of people, the purpose changes.
Dentistry is no longer an end unto itself, it’s a means, a beginning – both for the community and
the doctor.

The Name
The name of the foundation should be easily understood and it should inspire. It is its own call to
action. The suggested name for this foundation seems a natural fit: Open Wide Foundation.
It’s the request of the dentist to patient, but it’s also the request of the foundation to the dentists
–in terms of their time, their hearts, and their wallets! It is also the request of the recipient
communities – to be Open Wide to the possibilities of change.

If Dentistry is the means, what’s the end?


The best end is the transformation a community when it breaks the cycle of poverty. The Open
Wide Foundation and the participating dentists are not the authors of the transformation but
rather catalysts empowering the community to do it themselves.

The transformation doesn’t end with the community. Through engagement and relationship, the
participant dentists themselves are impacted and changed through the experience.

The form and function of how the Foundation will engage in each situation will change from
community to community. It’s not the work of the Foundation or the participating dentists to
decide what the community needs, that’s their work. Instead, the commitment of Open Wide is
to come alongside, provide needed service through dentistry, establish relationships, listen, learn,
then offer support for the community’s own transformation.

Open Wide Foundation


Transforming communities, one mouth at a time

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