Midsummer Jamboree for Malawi a great success – hats off to Smileawi and Bridge2Aid!

This post has been written jointly by Nigel and Vicky Milne (Smileawi), Shaenna Loughnane (Bridge2Aid) and Jeremy Bagg (The MalDent Project)

The charities Smileawi and Bridge2Aid have featured on numerous occasions in this blog, since they are two of the strongest partners of The MalDent Project, having been closely engaged with various work streams since its inception. One of the areas of activity in which they are currently collaborating is the training of Oral Health Promoters in Malawi, particularly in the more rural areas of the country. In an earlier blog post by Andrew Paterson of Bridge2Aid, the basis of their model of cascade training of dental therapists and community volunteers is outlined. The initial proof of concept trial has been undertaken in Northern Malawi and work is now underway to roll out the project in Central and Southern regions.

In order to raise additional funding to support this Oral Health Promoter expansion, Smileawi and Bridge2Aid decided to run a collaborative fund-raising event to coincide with the 2025 Scottish Dental Show. The Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Glasgow (RCPSG) was chosen at an early stage as the venue of choice. With its strong commitment to global health, the RCPSG has been a great supporter of Smileawi and The MalDent Project, and its beautiful building, together with the hospitality function delivered through 1599, made it the perfect choice for the event.

The Midsummer Jamboree for Malawi took place on Friday 20th June 2025. The event was focused on the spectacular RCPSG College Hall, constructed and designed by architect John James Burnett in 1892, which looked very impressive set out at the beginning of the evening with nine tables for the formal dinner.

Each table setting included a baobab tree, wooden elephant and Malawi flag to reflect the focus of the fund-raising. These items, made and purchased in Malawi, were kindly provided by Ruthie Markus, CEO of the charity AMECA, one of our other partners. Each table was named after a Malawian town or village.

We would be served and looked after throughout the evening by a fantastic team of College staff from 1599.

A wide variety of raffle prizes had been donated by supporters to tempt guests into participating in the After Eight Mint raffle. These were displayed on a table at the back of College Hall. The After Eight Mints had been lucky to survive the unusually warm Glasgow day in the back of Shaenna’s car parked at Braehead for the Scottish Dental Show earlier!

Before the guests arrived there was time for the organisers to have a photo taken with Steven Drennan, our piper for the evening.

At 6.45pm, Steven headed down to the steps at the formal entrance of the College and began playing to welcome our guests as they arrived:

There is no better welcome to an event in Scotland than the sound of the pipes and our guests loved it. We were delighted that a number of those joining us were Malawian and they particularly enjoyed meeting the piper.

The evening started with welcoming drinks in the Lower Library, a beautiful, intimate room lined by bookcases and ancient volumes over two levels:

This was a great opportunity to catch up with friends and colleagues ahead of the formal dinner:

Having completed his duties welcoming guests into the College on St Vincent Street, Steven was pressed into action again to pipe us all up the staircase into College Hall for dinner:

The Hall was soon buzzing with the hum of conversation and sounds of laughter – a great evening was in store.

Once we were all seated Professor Christine Goodall, Vice President (Dental) of the RCPSG, welcomed us to the College. Christine cited the significant support of the College for the ongoing oral health developments in Malawi as part of its global health mission and also mentioned that the College is currently celebrating its 425th anniversary. What an appropriate setting for our event.

Following Christine, Shaenna Loughnane, CEO of Bridge2Aid, gave a summary of the ongoing partnership with Smileawi and the purpose of the Oral Health Promoter training initiative in Malawi. Nigel Milne of Smileawi then gave a vote of thanks to the various individuals and organisations who had helped to make this evening’s event possible.

The dinner service then commenced and 1599 fully lived up to its reputation for serving beautifully prepared cuisine.

In between courses, guests were given the opportunity to make donations and participate in a variety of games and challenges, together with the raffle. The first game, ‘heads or tails’ was won by Ruthie Markus, who gambled heavily on ‘tails’ – a good call!

Another challenge was provided courtesy of the dental charity called Small Bricks Project (Registered Charity Number 1205284). This is a very novel organisation that supports children referred to the NHS Community Dental Services in Wales, and we were very grateful to our guest Manolis Roditakis for suggesting the idea and supplying the boxes of bricks.

Those guests entering the competition were provided with a small box containing multi-coloured pieces of Lego, which had to be joined together to form the shape of a heart.

Prizes were awarded for those who created the heart most swiftly. Those who didn’t wait for the start signal were summarily disqualified!

After dinner and when all the games were completed, guests were invited to move across to the Princess Alexandra Room where tea and coffee were served.

Meanwhile, in College Hall, the tables were being cleared and re-arranged in preparation for the gig by the Big Smile Big Band. The members of this amazing group of musicians are all dentists who trained at the University of Glasgow Dental School. What began as a small group who played the incidental music for each year’s traditional dental student Christmas pantomime became, under the leadership of Callum Wemyss, a wonderful troupe which has now played at many events for a variety of organisations and charities, including the RCPSG HOPE Foundation. Although some of the members have now been qualified for a decade, they still come back together for events such as ours – tremendous camaraderie, loyalty and dedication for which we were very grateful.

In addition to the instrumentalists, Glasgow Dental School has also enjoyed some terrific singers among its ranks, as the following clip shows:

As the band played its set, the dancers among the guests made the most of the vibe, keeping the action going until the curfew at midnight.

We are immensely grateful to all those who came along on the evening to help us generate funds for the ongoing Oral Health Promoter project in Malawi.

Thanks to your generosity the event raised £3825, which will allow the project to proceed apace. Be sure to follow the social media channels of Smileawi and Bridge2Aid, in addition to this blog, to keep up with progress and future developments.

THANK YOU ALL FOR JOINING US!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank our generous event sponsors:

Gold sponsor: Park Orthodontics

Silver sponsors: Chase de Vere Dental and Henry Schein Cares

We would also like to thank the following organisations and individuals who helped us to make the evening such a success:

The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow

Fiona Hainey, RCPSG Conference & Events Manager, and the team at 1599

Steven Drennan, our piper

The Big Smile Big Band, led by Callum Wemyss

Manolis Roditakis and the Small Bricks Project

Ruthie Markus and AMECA

Will Peakin, Editor of Scottish Dental Magazine

The Scotland Malawi Partnership

All of our raffle donors