1. RUN DENTAL PLACEMENTS WITH LIMITED MODIFICATIONS
Our preferred plan is to run dental hospital placements and dental outreach volunteering projects with very limited modifications. For this to happen, important criteria for re-opening programs would need to be met. These include the re-opening of international travel to the country and the granting of visas to our travelers. In addition, global and country-specific travel health advisories would need to be lowered. This would likely result from significant decreases in COVID-19 transmission both in the US and other regions where students are traveling. Events that could facilitate this possibility would be an increased understanding of the disease, adherence to restrictions and social distancing guidelines, changes in acceptable risks, widespread testing & contact tracing, and the development of a vaccine. We anticipate that these changes will emerge differently on a country-by-country basis. In all cases, AROUND GOOD PEOPLE would make decisions that prioritize community, instructor, and student safety above all other considerations.
WHICH PROGRAMS WILL BE OPEN THIS YEAR AS PER THE SCENARIO #1 ?
We are making plans for reopening programs on a case-by-case basis, based on the latest travel advisories for Nepal, the status of local health risks, and any local government restrictions that might remain in place. Since we support dental/oral health volunteers from countries all over the world, our approach to opening programs is based entirely on local conditions and guidance from the relevant local authorities. Each volunteer should make their own assessment on whether they will be able to travel to participate in their program based on their own individual circumstances.
The following programs are due to re-open in October, 2020 under scenario #1:
- City based Dental Hospital Placement.
- Dental Outreach Project. This placement is available for group sign up only (minimum 6 volunteers)
2. RUN DENTAL PLACEMENTS WITH SIGNIFICANT MODIFICATIONS
Our secondary option is to run planned dental hospital placements and dental outreach volunteering programs with more significant modifications to account for COVID-19 risks, local ordinances, and new cultural or social expectations.The most likely modifications under this option would be a 2-week quarantine upon arrival and elimination of high interpersonal contact activities on course.