Ben Witte

Ben Witte, former secretary of DHIN, received a royal decoration. (Knight in the Order of Oranje Nassau)

Ben is one of the initiators of Dental Health International Nederland, back in the seventies.

Together with several idealistic colleagues he started collecting used dental instruments and materials.

At first the DHIN warehouse was nothing more than some carton boxes. The first initiatives from the DHIN people were directed toward Indonesia, a former Dutch colony. During the years to follow, the DHIN people learned a lot about all kinds of pitfalls that people stumble upon when they try to help colleagues in third world countries. Over the years DHIN became a well-known and respected organisation in the Dutch dental world.

Ben is the one within DHIN who initiated actions and stimulated others all the way from the very beginning up to his farewell in September 2000.

Besides all his work for DHIN he has been president of the local division of the Red Cross organisation in the region where he lives.

He teached First Aid to countless numbers of participants in the Red Cross.

Ben was in the board of the Youth Dental Service (dental cars) during many, many years.

So, when he retired, he was nominated to receive a royal decoration.

And we think he deserved it.