A fitting tribute: The Colin Riley Scholarship
In a fitting tribute to the late Dr Colin Riley, a new scholarship has been created that will have positive, long-lasting effects.
Saying goodbye to a beloved colleague and friend was never going to be easy. Especially considering that Dr Colin Riley had such a positive impact on so many people throughout his career.
It was Colin’s propensity for doing good that inspired Chief Financial Officer Tim Hogan and Chief Oral Health Officer Martin Hall to do something significant to honour his memory.
Wanting to make an impact, the pair developed a fitting tribute that will have positive, long-lasting effects. What started as an idea of donating dental vans to communities in need of oral health support quickly progressed to something even bigger.
The Colin Riley Scholarship
A scholarship involving clinical placement and training in the Pacific Islands is being established. Clinicians across the public oral health sector will be encouraged to apply.
“Capacity building is a key focus of the scholarship. Participants will be sponsored to travel to each of the Pacific Islands to support and learn from the local dental staff,” said Martin.
“There will also be a rotation which will involve us bringing some of their clinicians over to Australia to visit Victoria on a study tour,” said Martin.
This fantastic initiative is the beginning of a relationship that will also support dental services in key pacific nations to improve oral health outcomes for their communities.
Vans bound for the pacific
Three decommissioned dental vans have been donated to Vanuatu, Tonga, and the Solomon Islands.
“These destinations were chosen so they can use this mobile infrastructure to provide dental services to communities in areas that currently have poor access to oral health care,” said Tim.
“Providing support to these communities and improving the health of local populations ties into our commitment as a global leader,” said Tim.
Each van has been serviced and equipped and each respective dental service will receive $10,000 of consumables and instruments each year as part of a five-year agreement. DHSV will provide remote technical support to help maintain the equipment.
DHSV has a long history of providing oral health consumables and support to remote communities, such as the Balibo Dental Clinic in Timor Leste.
Visiting the vans
Central to the establishment of this scholarship was connecting with Colin’s family.
“We wanted to make sure that they were not only on board with it, but that they were kept informed about all the key elements every step of the way,” said Tim.
Before the vans were donated, Chief Executive Officer Sue McKee and Tim Hogan joined Colin’s wife, Wendy, and his three daughters, Ella, Nicola, and Fiona at CEVA Logistics in Truganina to inspect the vans and view the inscriptions on the plaques.
Each of the vans donated in Colin’s honour have been dedicated to his three beloved daughters, with Fiona’s van headed for Vanuatu, Ella’s bound for Tonga and Nicola’s van is going to the Solomon Islands.
We want to send an extra special message of thanks to Tim Hogan for coordinating this important endeavour with Colin Riley’s family.
