Phillips Renner Foundation

The Phillips Renner Foundation aims to improve the dental health of children in impoverished and underdeveloped communities around the world by providing oral health education and basic pediatric dental care to kids who cannot afford it or simply do not have any dentists around.

Volunteer teams, consisting of both dental and non-dental volunteers, travel to impoverished and underserved communities around the world. Once there, the team daily sets up a clinic where, working with local partners on the ground, children come to be assessed and treated for their dental needs and educated on nutrition and oral health.

PRF's co-founders travel around the globe to potential locations where they conduct initial assessments of children's dental health needs and the availability of dental care (or lack thereof). They also determine the viability of volunteering in such locations, considering factors such as whether it is a politically safe situation, whether it is physically safe for volunteers, and whether local partners are cooperative. Once an initial assessment is complete and it is determined that a particular location is in need of children's dental health care and that volunteering in said community would be viable and beneficial, qualified dentists and non-dental volunteers are selected, a dental mission trip is organized, and preparations are made for a weeklong endeavor. By the end of a typical dental mission trip, thousands of children will have been educated, assessed, and treated.

Since its inception in 2019, PRF has assessed and treated over 4,330 children. As PRF continues its work around the world, PRF's hope is to broaden its reach to serve more and more communities in need. And more broadly speaking, PRF hopes to encourage the joy of, and capacity for, volunteering amongst professionals, younger generations, and local communities.

PRF has also learned to adapt due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. Global travel restrictions have limited PRF in its ability to provide on-site pediatric dental assessments and treatments. But to continue in the spirit of PRF's mission of helping children in impoverished and disadvantaged communities, PRF has delivered hundreds of packages of needed items - such as nutritious food, baby food and formula, vitamins, clinical masks, blankets - through its local networks. PRF has also coordinated with partners to provide education on basic nutrition, as well as overall health.