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Carmel teen creates nonprofit to deliver oral health items to people in need

CARMEL, Ind. (WISH) — A local teen has started a nonprofit to collect toothbrushes and other items needed for oral health. 

She’s shipping them to people in need in some of the world’s poorest countries. 

Emily Deldar is a junior at Carmel High School. 

This past summer, she was the school’s representative at the Congress of Future Medical Leaders. 

She heard from a number of people who solved some serious issues as teens and was inspired. 

She wants to be an orthodontist and her parents are dentists so she started focusing on oral health. 

She said she found many people in the world do not have a toothbrush. They might share a toothbrush or a twig. 

Deldar started collecting toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss and other dental tools. 

She reached out out to dentists in Indiana asking for items, and she received some help to become a nonprofit. It is known as the World Smiles Mission. 

So far she has sent 400 toothbrushes to people in Malawi and she has another 2,000 that will be sent to Uganda. 

“It’s amazing. It makes my heart so warm. I’ve always loved doing stuff for people, it makes me so happy when I see that a high schooler can be making such a big difference and it’s awesome to see how supportive everyone is,” Deldar said. 

Deldar has board members as part of her nonprofit and she even created a club at school for it. 

If you’d like to help her, you can contact her at worldsmilesmission@gmail.com.