Introduction and the journey to the fruit feeding program in schools
Hayley Bell lives in West Yorkshire, She is a mother of two adult children and also a Dental Nurse at Cavity Dental Staff. She has been a Dental Nurse for 25 Years and been with Cavity for the past 6 years.
Since 2018 she has been spending a lot of time volunteering in West Africa in different ways. She has worked with Mercy Ships, a floating Hospital Ship which works purely in West Africa providing free first class Health care where it’s needed the most. She also visited a new Paediatric hospital including a Dental department. This organization was founded by two American couples and is called Hope Ignited; they have partnered with Mercy Ships.
In her words "Guinea is a very beautiful country and very friendly people. Unfortunately some of the poorest in West Africa".
Most recently she has been working with a different organization in Guinea; Iris Global Ministries.
Feeding program in schools: Iris Global Ministries
Iris Global Ministries have 65 locations in 34 nations. This takes place among the undeserved, the destitute, the lost, the broken and the forgotten.
They carry out many activities such as;
Training for adults and adolescents to give them a trade to support themselves and their families. These include: Computer studies, tailoring, carpentry, electricity, masonry, hairdressing, catering, motor mechanics and much more. There is a lot of community projects such as contribution to food like self -sufficiency in Agriculture and rice growing. Fighting against hunger with feeding programs to each family. Fun, games, and craft time with the children. Working with street children by identifying the sites, providing their immediate aids and reconciling them to their families where possible. Supporting widows, children born in prison and hospitalised patients. Providing of school materials, books, pencils, pens and school bags.
Care for children at the base and children visit from the communities,
"Due to time and the pandemic I could not actually visit the village until 2022. It stole my heart, so I just had to return."
The Village of Hope
There are 33 children that live in the orphanage village. They are 4-15 year olds and are looked after by 7 staff. The older teenagers are still under the care of Iris and live with church families due to commuting to college, they are still very much part of the Iris family and visit regularly.
The Village of Hope operates as one big family and it’s a wonderful thing to be part of and experience, even the children all have their parts to play and there is always time for football which they love.
Many activities take place in the village- Games with the children, story time, singing songs, prayer time, craft time. Then there is the feeding program in the community for 700 children which also involves fun activities. Other activities include, painting inside the house and cleaning windows and watching the local football academy finals.
The football academy was set up by a staff member at the village to give the boys in the community a sense of purpose and its thriving but it needs support. Hayley presented the cup at the school football match finals. She also attended sports day and other activities at the school as well as attended the main church. She spoke twice at the church and went out into the community meeting new people and inviting them along, also visiting the sick and new born babies in their homes.
"I observed soap being made and I am now experienced with the wash board! I delivered some Oral health Education to the children as well as enjoying the clean air and simple lifestyle of the village and of course the sunshine."
She spent a lot of time in the Central prison as part of the regular prison visitors team, visiting weekly to encourage and support both men and women.
One of my biggest highlights so far has been Christmas 2022 which I spent peeling and chopping vegetables and preparing food the week leading up to Christmas. We cooked it, plated it up and delivered it to 2700 inmates at the prison. That was a Christmas like no other, I felt so honoured to be part of it.
The Fruit Feeding Program
Different programs run at different times of the year depending on what funding is available.
"Whilst I was there, my attention was drawn to of the lack of fruit in the diet, which is due to lack of funding, so I decided to launch the fruit feeding program to provide a piece of fruit daily, to enhance their balanced diet and to enable them to gain from all the health benefits fruit gives. It costs approximately £10 per day to provide fruit for everyone at the village from the local market."
An apple a day for your dental throwaways!
Save your used dental products and help Hayley raise money through the TerraCycle scheme.
Cavity have joined forces with Hayley to help raise awareness and raise the £3500 she needs each year to supply fresh fruit.
Please Save:
Any brand of used toothpaste Tubes & caps
Toothpaste outer packaging.
Used PLASTIC toothbrush outer packaging
Used PLASTIC toothbrushes
Electric toothbrush heads and their packaging
Floss container & the outer packaging
Start a collection box in your dental practice:
Save up your dental throwaways, contact us and we will get them picked up from you.
If you are anywhere near our Head Office in Winnersh, Wokingham then you can just drop your bits into the collection bin in the lobby.
We will then send off parcels to TerraCycle and they will donate money to the feeding program – so why fill a landfill with plastic when you can raise money to feed children?