Fairfield Dentist Advances Maternity Clinic In Senegal

FAIRFIELD, CT — (Contributed article): Fairfield dentist Dr. Susan K. Levine has raised $21,410 through GoFundMe and helped to open a maternity clinic for an underserved population in the French-speaking West African nation of Senegal. The money raised supported completion of construction of a clinic that was abandoned four years ago because funding was no longer available. The clinic is part of a health center in the community of Joal, Senegal.

Levine’s interest in Senegal was driven by a Senegalese expatriate who was her French-language tutor. He showed her a photograph of his daughters back home, one of whom was missing two front teeth. Levine was able to fabricate a prosthesis here in the states to replace these missing front teeth. Levine learned of the shortage of funding when she visited Senegal in November of 2016.

“What I found out,” she said. “Is that many women in this region die during child birth due to inadequate facilities and health care. It became apparent to me that raising the money was an atonable goal. Doing so would greatly impact the quality of health care in this community.”

Levine started practicing dentistry in 1982 with her father Bernard in his dental practice in Stratford and established her own practice in general and cosmetic dentistry in Fairfield in 1997. Her father was at one time a volunteer on a kibbutz in Israel. At 92 now and retired in Florida, he told his daughter her outreach in Senegal was “gutsy.”

Pictured: Dr. Susan K. Levine / Contributed photo and article