Snodgrass-King Trip to Haiti

In November, 2010, Dr. Snodgrass and Dr. King led a team of eleven Snodgrass-King staff members to Haiti and the Dominican Republic. They stopped in Sosua, DR at the Haitian and Dominican Assistance Corporation’s, Monkey Jungle Clinic, where they treated over 200 of the Dominican’s poorest of the poor.

In May of 2010, SnodgrassKing donated new and used dental equipment to Monkey Jungle and this was their first time back to actually use the clinic. Monkey Jungle is the brainchild of retired Nashville developers, Chuck and Candance Ritzen . The resort is a tourist destination for visitors wishing to interact with caged squirrel and capuchen monkeys. It also has one of the longest and fastest zip-lines in the Western Hemisphere. Built and owned by the Ritzens, all of the proceeds collected at the resort go to support the free medical/dental clinic operating on weekends at the property. Without the support of this free clinic, many of the regions poor would continue their chronic suffering.

After a brief three days in the Dominican, the team was flown by small planes into Haiti. Crossing the Haitian border from Dajabon, DR into Ouanaminthe, Haiti, the team spent the next four days at Danita’s Children, Hope for Haiti Center, at the dental clinic equipped by SnodgrassKing in May of 2010. For the first time since Dr. Snodgrass and Dr. King began going to Haiti in 2007, the team was able to do more than extractions.

Over 300 of the Haitian people received cleanings, fillings, sealants, stainless steel crowns, extractions, and routine restorative dental procedures. Most of these were either the orphans supported by Danita’s Children, the local children who attended Danita’s school, the people who attended Danita’s church, the local Haitians who were in pain, or the local Haitian people employed by Danita.

Danita’s Children, www.danitaschildren.org, is a non-profit charity that focuses on rescuing and caring for orphaned or abandoned children in Haiti. Dr. Snodgrass and Dr.King have supported the orphanage since 2007. Dr. Snodgrass’s adopted daughter, Margarite, was a child who’s life was saved and nurtured by the missionaries of Danita’s Children.