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Taliban seize land for s anta Barbara dentist’s clinic
Dr. James Wolfe seeks donations to help with relocation cost for facility for the poor in Afghanistan
By KATHERINE ZEHNDER NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
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The Taliban have taken control of the land for a Kabul clinic built by a Santa Barbara dentist.
About a month ago, the Taliban closed the Afghanistan Dental Relief Project in Kabul and seized the land given to the project by the former Afghan government.
The dental project has provided free dental care for more than 200,000 poor Afghans during its 20 years of operation.
Dr. James Wolfe, a Santa Barbara dentist, built the Kabul clinic that the Taliban seized. He is now seeking donations to help with the clinic’s relocation.
Dr. Wolfe told the News-Press how his involvement began. “In 2003, I went to Wardak province and was working with a bunch of orphan boys who had seven or eight abscess teeth each,” Dr. Wolfe said. “The Wardak province is about the size of Connecticut, and there is no dentist in the whole province. The only option was a local barber with unsterile instruments and no anesthetic.”
Dr. Rolfe returned to Santa Barbara and constructed a modern three-chair dental clinic from a 40-foot shipping container, completely self-contained with its own generator, and sent it to Afghanistan. Then he hired an Afghan dentist and nurse and trained them to use it, and started a school to train dental technicians from poor young Kabul residents.
Dr. Rolfe continued to build more dental clinics from shipping containers during the following years, going there many times during the last 20 years.