A very warm welcome to Emeritus Professor Jeremy Bagg OBE, who was appointed as AMECA’s new Chairman of the Board in the UK in July.

AMECA is delighted and honoured to welcome Jeremy, who brings a wealth of academic and health service delivery experience in the UK together with a thorough knowledge here in Malawi. Jeremy is the Former Head of The University of Glasgow Dental School and Lead for the Scottish funded Maldent Project. Jeremy is also Chair of the Scotland Malawi Partnership, (of which AMECA is a member), Former Director of Global Health for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, (RCPSG) and was made an Honorary Fellow of the RCPSG last year.

Funded by the Scottish Government, the MalDent Project has established Malawi’s first Bachelor of Dental Surgery Degree Programme, the first graduates having graduated earlier this year. (See last newsletter). There are now an additional 124 dental students registered on the programme. The MalDent Project also established, in collaboration with the Malawi Ministry of Health, a National Oral Health Policy, launched in 2022.

The Scottish Government grant also included funding for the design of a new KUHeS Dental School building, which allowed the appointment of John McAslan + Partners to lead a consortium of architects, engineers and surveyors from both Scotland and Malawi, who have worked with The MalDent Project team. In turn, $5.2m was leveraged from the World Bank to fund construction of the building, which is now underway in Blantyre.

AMECA has had the privilege of working with Jeremy since the end of 2023, after we brought to his attention, the plight of dental services at Chilomoni Health Centre. The rest is history!!