 The Montero Medical Mission arrived on the island on Saturday, September 16th. The US Mission is headed by its founding member and President, Dr. Juan Montero. The mission will be providing dental care to patients who have been assessed and registered at the dental clinics around the island via appointment. The medical team will be providing services such as cleanings, fillings and extractions at each of the dental clinics from September 18th to September 20th. During a brief ceremony and a training session on Sunday, September 17th, Dr. Juan Montero described the delegation's experience on island so far as a tremendous blessing for the 12-year-old medical mission. I call it like a unique, ultimate situation in the mission work for all the things that we have received so far, starting during our arrival and that events will get together last night, attended by the who is who here in St. Lucia and the Routarians and the Lions. And so I look forward to the following days when we are here for a week of helping our beloved people here in St. Lucia, which I am now also a friend and hoping to be a friend forever. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs, Ms. Jenny Daniel, said oral health is one of the key pillars of health and wellness and reaching the goal of a healthy population requires a support and partnership with public and private entities. Dental care, unfortunately, is often, very often overlooked as a pillar of health care in St. Lucia, not just in St. Lucia, in other parts of the world as well. In the past, however, the examination of the oral health of a person's, well, oral health of individuals was often used as a measure of good health or poor health conditions in an individual. If we use this same measure, then addressing oral health care is actually a pathway through which we can channel an improvement in a person's state of health, even in terms of the, well, the clinical well-being as well as the mental well-being as well. She added that in St. Lucia, as with several other countries, access to oral health care is prohibited by the cost of treatment. However, early initiation into proper oral hygiene could reduce on the need for costly treatment. The mission, she says, complements the Ministry's ongoing efforts in the area of health reform aimed at giving greater access to basic health services. While in St. Lucia, the medical mission will also be engaging all 77 primary schools on the island on a call-get-virtual van tour. The Val Refletcher, Curriculum Officer for Health and Family Life Education at Camdo, explains that the virtual van tour is being executed via the Zoom platform from Monday, September 18th to Wednesday, September 20th. It has been organized in such a way so that all 77 primary schools on the island can be part of it, but every school is grouped. So, hence the reason why we have the three days, and also to accommodate the students, we also have more than one session on the day. So we begin from 10 a.m. online, so we have half an hour session, half an hour lesson, so from 10 to 10.30 we have the first session, and we have another one from 10.45 to 11.15 and from 11.30 to 12. On Sunday, the mission also awarded certificates to the dental assistants who had participated in a four-month online program which focused on radiology, radiation health safety, infection control, and oral anatomy, among other topics. The Ministry of Health, Wellness, and Elderly Affairs supports the collaborative efforts of Rotary St. Lucia, Rotary Grosallye, Lions Club, the tourism sector, and the Mayor of Tasteries in welcoming the Montero Medical Mission as they provide all needed dental care to the public. From the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Health, Wellness, and Elderly Affairs, Tulita Peter reporting.