Penn Dental Medicine Signs MOU with School in South Africa, Adding to Collaboration in Tanzania

Philadelphia – Penn Dental Medicine is continuing to build upon its international engagement with the signing of a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. The signing took place as part of a recent visit by Penn Dental Medicine’s Morton Amsterdam Dean, Dr. Mark S. Wolff, to South Africa and Tanzania.

“We are eager to be building a working relationship with the University of the Witwatersrand through this MOU,” says Dean Wolff, who signed the MOU with Professor Shabir Madhi, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Witwatersrand. “We look forward to future research, collaboration, and exchanges between our faculty and students and to collaborate with schools in Southern and Eastern Africa. Building upon the strengths of the three institutions, we can improve the health of individuals with limited access to oral healthcare.”

On the trip, Dean Wolff also visited Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, meeting at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) with the MUHAS Vice Chancellor, with whom an MoU was also recently executed, and leadership of the MUHAS Dental School. While in Tanzania, Dean Wolff also met with the Ministry of Health officials, exploring how Penn Dental Medicine may be able to collaborate on child and maternal health and oral health, including bringing Penn’s research and training experiences in disability and community health to collaborate with the faculty of MUHAS.

The meetings in South Africa and Tanzania were organized and facilitated by the leadership of Henry Schein Cares and MCW Global. MCW Global is a non-profit organization with a vision for communities around the world to achieve greater levels of education, improved health, and increased economic security. MCW Global’s work in Tanzania is centered on promoting improved oral health across the country, including underserved communities.

“Connecting Wits, home to Africa’s first dental school and present provider of postgraduate education in all fields for the continent, with MUHAS, which shares MCW Global’s vision of improving access to oral health, UPenn is positioned to energize these two anchor schools to continue to train dental faculty for institutions across Africa,” says Dr. Marion Bergman, Director, Health Care Projects, MCW Global.

With the signing of the memorandums of understanding with the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and MUHAS in Tanzania, Penn Dental Medicine now has a total of 34 international MOU agreements for exchange with schools around the globe.