By Alumni UK Team, British Council Indonesia

05 September 2024 - 10:31

As a seasoned dentist, Erli Sarilita has dedicated her entire career to improving countless people’s dental health, laying the foundation for their well-being in the process. “In Indonesia, not all healthcare facilities have dental care providers. That’s why I'm concerned with the dental health of our next generation, especially in remote areas like Merauke, where I focus my project,” she reasons. 

The project, entitled Dental Care Initiative for Children: Empowering Merauke’s Underserved through Social Action, is set to provide free dental checkups and treatments to first to sixth graders - roughly between the ages of 7 and 12 - in Merauke and its surrounding areas. “I've done similar projects in the past, but only in the West Java area, where dental healthcare providers are quite rare. I was curious to learn about the situation in far-flung corners of the country, considering the sheer breadth of Indonesia,” she recounts. “I’m constantly seeking opportunities to expand my skills as a dentist as well as to contribute to more communities across the archipelago.”  

Such an undertaking naturally entails collaborative work. “I will be assisted by one oral maxillofacial surgeon from Universitas Padjadjaran, where I serve as an associate professor at the Faculty of Dentistry, and four students from Universitas Musamus Merauke, our local experts for this project,” she adds. “It’s very important to work alongside local communities when doing a project in this manner, especially with entities like puskesmas (community health centres), schools, village offices, local dentists, and local dentist associations.” 

Furthermore, Erli and her assistants will have a proper set of procedures in place when carrying out the project. “To begin, we will perform a paper-based survey on the children’s parents and ask for their consent first. Afterwards, we will proceed to the dental check-up and assess the children’s needs before we conduct the treatment,” she explains.  

Similarly, the measure of success for the project will be based on the number of children receiving the check-ups and treatments. “After that, we will conduct mini-interviews with the local stakeholders attending the project, such as the students themselves, the teachers, the headmasters, and if possible, the parents. We will ask about their expectations and perceptions of the project, how the project benefits them, if there’s any criticism they might have about the project, and so on. And then we will discuss the results of the interviews in our progress report,” elaborates Erli.   

Erli is also excited about partnering up with dental care brands in support of the project. “We plan to collaborate with dental care brands so they can provide us with goodie bags containing toothpastes and toothbrushes as part of their CSR programme. Down the line, I hope to work with fellow UK alumni too, especially from the University of Dundee,” she says, referring to her alma mater where she obtained her Master of Science and PhD in Human Anatomy. 

While emphasising on the positive impact of her UK study to her self-esteem and capacity building, Erli continues, “To that end, I will create an awareness campaign for the project and post it on my LinkedIn page. If anyone wishes to contribute to the project, I would be happy to accommodate them in any way they wish. Perhaps there would be new project ideas that we could work on together in the future. This is one of the great things about being part of the UK alumni; networking further enriches our work, especially our social action projects.”