Jamaican health care is facilitated by the Jamaican Ministry of Health. The Ministry is responsible for public hospitals, health centers, health services, and health policies of the island.

Public health systems are in place in most urban areas but in rural areas the Ministry’s structure and mission often gets lost. In Jamaica, over 9.5% of all children in Jamaica are served by public health dental care. Less than 1.0% of all adults are served. In some areas, there are only community health aides and mid wives.

In these rural areas, dental care and eye care are major issues. In rural Jamaica, there is only one dentist for every 100,000 people. There are only two eye care professionals for every 500,000 Jamaicans. There is a huge need to bring dental and eye care to rural Jamaicans and many organizations have set up temporarily clinics or projects to fill this need.

Including…Great Shape! Inc. The dental care project 1000 Smiles and the eye care project iCare send volunteers to rural Jamaica each year to provide health care to over 6,300 Jamaicans! Last year, 1000 Smiles served 4,500 people in just 6 weeks. The project also sent Dental Education Teams to schools where 15,000 children heard the valuable message of dental hygiene. The 2009 iCare team served 1,850 Jamaicans in 4 days and provided 2,300 pairs of glasses and 125 surgery referrals.

Join us! Become a Great Shape! Inc. humanitarian and contribute to the bright smiles and bright eyes of healthy Jamaican children and families!

Want to become a part of the solution? You can register for 1000 Smiles online: www.gsjamaica.org,
To register for iCare, email icare@gsjamaica.org. We can’t wait to see you in Jamaica!