Objectives:

•  Promote dental hygiene and care amongst pupils in local schools

Dental care is an aspect of health which is much neglected in rural black communities. It is seen as unnecessary and unaffordable, and thus is paid little attention. The old-fashioned way of dental thinking – which unfortunately still prevails – is "painful and loose means extraction".

In order to start up a dental care awareness programme, NCDCP was developed; it was decided to start with young people. Youngsters can still learn new habits and their dental problems can still be treated at an early stage. Ngwenya means ‘crocodile' and the programme's name refers to the animal's massive jaws and dangerous teeth.

The programme consists of two parts: the Dutch part, Stichting Ngwenya , and the Ngwenya part, Ndlovu Medical Centre. The Dutch part seeks funding and volunteer dentists who would like to work for a short while in a rural South African environment. This is the driving force behind the programme. In Moutse, Ngwenya has a small local staff that regularly visits all primary and secondary schools in the area and holds workshops on dental hygiene and dental care in classrooms. Besides this, they screen all the children and select those who need dental attention. This is a low-cost programme with a high impact on the dental health of schoolchildren.  

NPDCP has the approval and assistance of the department of dentistry of the University of Pretoria . They see it as a pilot project for further research into whether this programme can also be implemented in other areas