Origin
SmileHigh was born out of a friendship between two individuals from different worlds - one a dentist and passionate mountaineer from New Zealand with an ambition to climb Mt Everest; and the other from Nepal whose early education was made possible by the work of Sir Edmund Hillary this later opened the door for him to become a dentist and help his community.
In 2003 Julian Haszard attempted to climb Cho Oyo, the sixth highest mountain in the world. After success on Cho Oyo, Julian worked for four weeks as a dentist in the Everest region. This was made possible by Russell Brice who is a friend of Dr Mingma Sherpa. While working in the region Julian and Mingma observed that the dental health of the children was deteriorating. It appeared that a rapid change in diet due to the influx of western tourists was the root of the problem- “a negative impact of tourism”. It was clear to both Mingma and Julian that the children were highly vulnerable to severe dental decay due to this change in diet and a lack of any strategy to guard their teeth.
The concept of removing large numbers of teeth and providing numerous large fillings in response to this severe dental decay problem as a long-term measure, was not appealing to Julian or Mingma. The example set by Sir Edmund Hillary and Fred Hollows had involved a sustainable approach where local people were empowered to solve their own problems. Julian and Mingma preferred a similar strategy and were keen to approach the problem from the perspective of education and prevention.
In 2004 Julian had the opportunity to climb Mt Everest. He was not sure if in 2004 he could justify climbing Mt Everest: “I felt that climbing Mt Everest was not all that relevant in the year 2004, I wanted to add value to the endeavour to make it worthwhile. I knew that I wanted to help Mingma and his people. So I made a commitment to support a dental project in the Everest region for five years which I would publicise through my climb of Mt Everest.” This initial project was named: The Khumbu Dental Project.
The Khumbu Dental Project gained strong support from a number of dental companies and private donors, who were mainly friends and family of Julian. In 2005 Trevor Moyle became involved with the project through The University of Otago Alumni Association. Trevor was instrumental in establishing a foundation structure for the project- The Himalayan Dental Health Foundation. This structure provided the basis for growth and sustainability.
A vision was established in 2003 by Julian and Mingma. This vision has been embraced by a team of supportive people who all have a desire to contribute something in an effort to increase the quality of life for people in Nepal. SmileHigh has evolved from this early vision and the significant support of these people.