Master’s in Dental Surgery

Hello.

My name is Hannington Baliddawa, I am a dental surgeon working with Jubilee Dental clinics, a husband and father of 3 children. And I need your help.

In may this year i applied to the world's best dental school in Hong Kong and was invited for a full day series of interviews. With just a week to raise the necessary funds that were required for me to travel, i was able to withdraw most of my saving to chase my dream. Four candidates were chosen where i was found most favourable to the 7 interviewing professors who also because of my background was further subjected to a practical interview to assess my knowledge and use of dental equipment. This i passed as well and on the 12th of June a month after the interview i received the admission letter. I was delighted and greatly honoured to have received the good news of admission but being an international student my tuition costs is a bit higher than the norm. Month after having withdrawn my little savings to be able to finance my travel expenses for the interview, my Father down with dimeture,my mother a farmer who does it for home consumption and i with school going children my dream for a brighter future seems to be in jeopardy.

I have approached government officials, tribal leaders, religious leaders,philanthropists,friends and relatives, started crowd fundraisers and all this has collected me only 160 pounds. I have written many online letters and I haven’t received any positive feedback.

With just a few days to the deadline of paying the composition fee, even when everything points to a not very positive direction I wrote to the university asking to offer a grace period so I can continue working towards getting the required money and the University is yet to get back to me about that extension. Am at the verge of burying my dream.

Begging for money from different people and getting no positive response has been a very emotionally exhausting journey so far, because every day since has meant that I come closer to this dream of becoming a periodontist where in Uganda I would be the second person with this qualification and the second practicing lecturer at the only dental school in the country where we have a scarcity of lecturers.But also that I'm faced with stark uncertainties of even starting on this journey.

Am faced with a big challenge of collecting $179,000 for the three years which is to be paid in instalments but now more pressed to pay the composition fee of $300,000 so my place is reserved before end of June 2018.

Whilst I do work with a dental clinic, this situation is way, way beyond my capabilities. I have done everything within my own ability to make ends meet, but with the amount due, I need all the help I can get.

My time is limited, as I have a few days left before end of June to pay the composition fee. My vacancy will probably be terminated soon after that, and I will not get the chance to do this masters at the world’s best dental faculty if I'm unable to raise the funds for my tuition.

I believe that if I'm able to show my university that I am raising a significant amount for tuition, they might be lenient with me and may grant me a little more time for myself, my family (and you all) to come up with the rest, even if the goal isn't reached by my deadline.

In my 6 years of working and one year of serving as president of the Uganda Dental Association , I have worked hard to ensure that whatever I do reflects my passion for this career for example;

When I was president of the Uganda dental association we had a lot of dental health training sessions,out reach programmes especially dental based,i sought for a grant from developed countries to help start a dental hospital in districts that have no one and gladly the Germany government in collaboration with the university of Mainz recently have confirmed willingness to sponsor this programme in Kaberamaido district starting August.

I am working towards acquiring a masters in dental implantology and also hope to be involved in Disaster relief,oral healthcare world wide.It wasn’t an easy journey to get the admission to such a prestigious University to pursue my passion and therefore,to have it all end now, like this, is a feeling I have no words to adequately describe. But I'm hoping against hope that I do not have to experience such crushing disappointment.

I love what I do.

And would choose this over and over again if I had to.

I'm not one to give up. I never have been, and I don't want to start now.

Realistically speaking , I know the odds are stacked very highly against me.

But even if this page doesn't work out, in retrospect, I want to be able to honestly say that I fought as hard as I could for this masters and for my people to not have to spend so much money flying abroad to more developed countries to see such specialists when they can access the same professionalism and treatment home.

For our dental school at Makerere to have a second periodontist lecturer.I also plan on seeing to it that the general public get to be sensitised and start to appreciate dental health.

I understand that it is a lot, putting everything out there like this. Trust me, I know it has taken me time to get to this decision, and a few extra days to figure out what it was I wanted to say.

More than anyone else, I also know how impossible all of this looks. But even though I've run out of options, I still have a little bit of hope left.

Nothing is too little; a shilling,dollar or whatever smallest denominations they are will go a really long way to see me close to achieving this dream.

Please help if you can. And if you can't, then please, PLEASE share this page as widely as you can. I'll also appreciate prayers and well wishes in this time

Thank you for reading.

And thank you so much, for trying.

In case you want to donate kindly use mobile money or Airtel money on the following numbers and please please include your name.

0703648340 in the names of Baliddawa Hannington.

O702 785868 Faith Baliddawa

0772455608 Faith Baliddawa.