Written by Ida Eva Zielinska
On June 22, 2025, the Tzu Chi USA Northeast Region and Brigada de Esperanza NY partnered to provide dental care outreach at the Ginarte Community Center in Corona, a neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City, where more than 70% of the population identifies as Hispanic or Latino. As highlighted in ABC7’s 2021 Our America Equity Report, “over 28% of Latino residents in Corona lack medical insurance,” making the provision of such free dental care services especially critical.
Such partnered aid efforts by Tzu Chi and Brigada de Esperanza (which translates to “Brigade of Hope”) to assist New York’s Hispanic communities are not new. Their collaboration began with food assistance, expanded to include vision care services following the arrival of two Tzu Chi Vision Mobile Clinics in 2019, and culminated in the addition of dental care outreach, thanks to a new Tzu Chi Dental Mobile Clinic launched to serve the New York area in 2024.
The dental care outreach on June 22, 2025, focused on preventative measures to avoid high-risk complications while offering a full range of services, including oral cleanings, exams, extractions, and restorations. “We stress prevention. It’s better than a cure. So, in this kind of event, mainly, we’re helping them with cleaning their teeth. After that, we do some follow-up visits and give them what they need – additional procedures like fillings, extractions, whatever they need,” explained Alice Wang, Tzu Chi’s Dental Team Leader.
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
To make all this possible, Alice Wang assembled a team of dental care professionals, a process made easier by the trusted relationships she had cultivated within the dental community. “When I heard about this event, that the patients are all Spanish-speaking, I went to some of my dentists who are Spanish-speaking and asked them for referrals,” she recounted. She received one referral after another, and the group grew.
We have a total of eight dental hygienists. They're all volunteers. Their assistants are all volunteers as well. And everybody, I think, comes with a great heart to help people.
There was an added bonus to finding a Spanish-speaking team. “I don’t need interpreters this way. It saves time, because we’re trying to finish each patient in 20 minutes. So there’s a time constraint,” said Wang.
The dedicated volunteer team offers a full spectrum of dental care services during the outreach, from cleanings and fillings to extractions and restorations. Photos/Jaime Puerta
At the same time, the outreach offered another opportunity to deepen connections, as some team members have been volunteering alongside Tzu Chi for many years. Among them was Dr. Arelys Santana, DDS, a general dentist and volunteer with both the Hispanic Dental Association and Tzu Chi USA.
“I met Dr. Santana maybe four or five years ago,” Wang shared. “She’s been very active volunteering with us, and always comes in with a big smile, making everybody happy around her. To come to an event where you work with people who are really dedicated, it’s sort of contagious: it makes you want to do more. She’s been a great part of the dental team.”
In fact, Santana has been volunteering her professional services during Tzu Chi’s medical outreach events since 2000 – not only in the New York area, but also internationally in Ecuador and Mexico, for instance, where her Spanish-speaking skills are a valuable asset. At this event in a community she knows well, she was fully aware of the importance of free dental care services.
In these recent times, it’s very necessary because we’re helping a community without insurance. Times are tough in New York, and without help from us, these people wouldn’t receive treatment.
She was also glad to help Alice Wang recruit a team large enough to accommodate the number of patients they hoped to treat that day. “We had a goal of 120 people. Each of us had around 18 patients. Altogether, we provided multiple services. With my experience, we were able to carry out restorative and even invasive procedures, such as extractions,” Dr. Santana shared.
Another key member on the team was Nancy Tituaña, Brigada de Esperanza’s General Coordinator, who, through that organization, has participated in Tzu Chi’s assistance for Hispanic communities in Queens, New York, since 2020. Moreover, Tituaña has also been a Tzu Chi care recipient, following a grave accident. In June that year, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, while volunteering to deliver groceries to families in need, a drunk driver struck Tituaña. One of her legs had to be amputated, while the other sustained multiple fractures.
After several surgeries, Tzu Chi volunteers visited her each month, bringing daily necessities and cash cards, while Tzu Chi International Medical Association (TIMA) members offered regular rehabilitation and acupuncture treatments to ease her pain and support her recovery. Today, Tituaña is fully mobile and able to continue caring for her community.
“Personally, and as a volunteer with Brigada de Esperanza, I can say I’ve received so much from Tzu Chi. I’m standing here because of that. Tzu Chi, Brigada, and other organizations have made it possible for me to return to a more honorable life and continue this mission of being able to keep helping people,” she says with immense gratitude.
Regarding her participation in this dental care outreach, Tituaña emphasized its broader impact beyond the immediate services provided, particularly the importance of health education for the community.
Many people are a bit afraid of the dentist. But with knowledge, they come to understand that care is accessible, and we can continue helping them maintain good oral health. What they can take away today is that through dental health, you can support a healthy body, mind, and confidence, all through good teeth.
Not only that, through the services offered that day, “we’re preventing heart problems, reducing the risk of complications,” Dr. Santana elaborated. She was also happy to see how excited the entire volunteer team she and Alice Wang recruited was to participate in the outreach, saying, “They’ve all been thrilled because they saw firsthand that the community really needs this.” Maria Paula Rodríguez, a member of the Hispanic Dental Association, was among them.
As a Hispanic myself, I like to help my community that has helped me too. So a lot of it for me is trying to give back what I’ve received from everybody who lives in the community, as everybody deserves the same care. For me, it’s a personal reward.
Maria Paula Rodríguez provides oral hygiene instruction and preventive care at the outreach, driven by her belief that the Hispanic community she belongs to deserves equal access to health services. Photos/Jaime Puerta
Ana Jerez, another volunteer, was equally excited to be there. “I’m a dentist in Ecuador. Here, I’m working as a dental assistant, so yes, I know a bit. I volunteer to help people and use my free time for a good cause. In our health profession, it’s about caring, helping others, and being available to serve,” she shared. “My role was to give oral hygiene talks, which means explaining to patients the steps and what methods or tips they should use daily for oral hygiene. For many people, it was new information.”
Ana Jerez is in charge of oral hygiene education at the outreach, guiding patients through daily care tips. Photos/Jaime Puerta
Oral Health Education Meets Urgent Need
For many patients, the information they received that day was eye-opening. “I had actually never been told how to properly brush my teeth. I learned to brush at a 45-degree angle, not at 90 degrees, because this can damage the teeth,” Maria Belén Alvarado explained. “They taught me that I shouldn’t neglect my oral care, that I should get a cleaning twice a year. Honestly, we neglect it; we don’t do it the way we should,” shared Victor Calle, another patient.
They also expressed their appreciation for receiving the care at no cost. “Many people don’t have resources. So I think having this service be free helps a lot,” Calle said. Alvarado concurred:
That’s something we all like, that it’s free. It helped me a lot because, in general, here in the United States, oral cleaning is quite expensive, so presenting it as something free and accessible for everyone seems really, really good to me.
The gratitude from patients deeply resonated with those providing care, as the satisfaction after the dental outreach on June 22 was also felt by the team delivering the services.
Coming to an event like this, it’s always very exciting to see people coming in. They might have some issue, and then they walk out having the issue taken care of. So I’m very happy to see something like that. It’s also one of the drives for me to keep doing this. I feel I’m contributing something. I’m helping some people. And also I enjoy it.”
“For me, it’s a blessing, because we’re offering something that others need, doing it with vision and compassion, like Tzu Chi does,” Dr. Arelys Santana concluded. Having volunteered during Tzu Chi’s medical outreach in the United States and internationally for years, she also gave thanks to Dharma Master Cheng Yen for inspiring everyone on the path of service: “She has truly set the example.”
