AN AMERICAN DENTIST AND A CHEF VISIT MALAWI AND FALL IN LOVE WITH THE PEOPLE AND CULTURE.
Rob Hampton, DDS and Claudia Sansone visited Malawi and changed the lives of thousands of villagers with medical care, education and nutritional counseling.
In 2010 Rob Hampton and Claudia Sansone visited Malawi, a landlocked country in sub-Saharan Africa sharing boundaries with Zambia to the Northwest, Tanzania to the North and Northeast and Mozambique to the East, South and Southwest. Malawi is small in size but large in numbers. Their population at the time was 13,947,00 million people with half of the population under 15 years (48%), and 49% between 15-64. Learning that there were only 19 registered Dentist and 58 registered dental assistants and therapist in the entire country, Dr. Hampton decided to open a dental clinic in a rural hospital north east of Lilongwe.
Carrying all of the supplies, including a dental chair, with them on their flight the two were welcomed with open arms. While Rob was seeing patients at Deayang Luke Hospital Claudia and a friend decided to venture to the local villages and the rest as they say is history. Claudia fell in love with the people and the culture.
The couple would return three more times, carrying dental supplies from donations for the dental clinic. On the third visit in 2013 Claudia met with the Chiefs of Dothi Villages asking how she could help. She suggested that they build a preschool school and an extended garden to feed the small children. In Malawi the average child walks 6 km to attend school. Most younger children are not allowed to walk the enormous distance and therefore do not start year 1 education until 7 or 8 years old. Little did Claudia realized the effect her visit would have on the people of the villages. During the next year the villagers got to work and completed a 24x36 foot structure that was to become the first preschool, with 56 children ages 4 to 7 years old enrolled, and expanded the village garden adding the different types of vegetation Claudia suggested.
