HVO honors Dr. Beltran

Washington鈥擠r. Eugenio Beltrán, a dentist and longtime volunteer for the Health Volunteers Overseas program, is one of nine recipients of the third annual HVO Golden Apple Award.

“I am humbled to receive this award and thank the ADA, HVO and all volunteers who had generously provided so many hours of teaching to colleagues in other parts of the world,” said Dr. Beltrán, Division of Oral Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Volunteerism is a two-way experience; you teach others and at the same time you learn from their country, community, culture and professionally from the way they confront their own dental problems.”

As an HVO volunteer, Dr. Beltrán has served in Cambodia, Vietnam, Tanzania, China, Nicaragua and Guyana as an educator, helping local health care professionals learn to diagnose, treat and prevent dental disease.

“I am glad to transmit to others less fortunate the knowledge and experience I got in dental school in Cayetano Heredia in Peru and graduate school at the University of Michigan,” said Dr. Beltrán. “The response of trainees is amazing. They are not just thankful for what they learn, but eager to use that practical information to improve the oral health of their patients and community.”

The HVO Golden Apple award recognizes the extraordinary educational contributions of volunteers to sites abroad.

HVO, a private, nonprofit membership organization, was founded in 1986 to improve global health through education.

For more information about HVO, visit their web site: www.hvousa.org.

For more information about volunteering overseas and volunteer organizations, contact the ADA Center for International Development and Affairs at “international@ada.org” or 1-312-440-2726.聽