Media

HKU Dental Postgraduate to Launch World’s First Charity to Promote Accurate Birth Records

22 Aug 2013

Dr Jayakumar Jayaraman, a third-year PhD candidate at the Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, will officially launch an international charity and website to improve birth registration policies, on Tuesday, 27 August 2013. Members of the media are cordially invited to the launch ceremony and media briefing.

Also in attendance will be four of the new organisation’s advisors: Prof Lakshman Samaranayake (HKU Dean of Dentistry), Dr Gloria Wong (HKU Clinical Assistant Professor in Paediatric Dentistry), Dr Carl Leung (Forensic Odontologist), and Dr Richard Ol-Santos (Conference of the Parties, United Nations).

Details of the launch ceremony and media briefing are as follows:
Date:         27 August 2013 (Tuesday)
Time:        10:30 am – 11:05 am
                  (registration from 10:00 am; launch party, 11:05 am to noon)
Venue:      Lounge, 7/F, Prince Philip Dental Hospital, 34 Hospital Road, Sai Ying Pun
Language:  English

The charity aims to promote universal birth registration and thereby secure every child’s identity and rights. It will also provide knowledge and skills on how to obtain correct ages for children and young adults who do not possess birth registration or identity documents. Ultimately, the charity strives to promote global standard practices and legal policies in accurate age assessment.

Verifying age is important for many reasons, including work, voting, marriage, and military service; criminal prosecution; and processing asylum or immigration cases. The method of age estimation promoted by the charity relies on studying dental X-ray records, which is the topic of Dr Jayaraman’s postgraduate dental studies at the HKU Faculty of Dentistry.

Media contact:
Mr Oi-sing Au, Communications and Development Officer, Knowledge Exchange Unit, Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, Tel: 2859 0454; E-mail: singau@hku.hk

For more information about the HKU Faculty of Dentistry, please visit http://facdent.hku.hk; Facebook page: www.facebook.com/facdent