By Lincoln DePradine
Grenada-born dentist Dr Sheridan Cyrus has announced plans for the setting up of a dental clinic on the compound of Grenada’s lone penal institution, the Richmond Hill Prisons, in the capital, St George’s.
About $10,000 in equipment has been donated for use at the clinic, said Dr. Cyrus, who owns and operates Sheridan Cyrus Dentistry in Scarborough’s Malvern community.
“All the equipment is in Grenada right now, just waiting to be put in,’’ Dr. Cyrus said in an interview with the Caribbean Camera.
The Grenada health ministry is renovating a site on the compound of the jail for housing the clinic, he said. It’s expected to be formally opened in June, when Dr. Cyrus is scheduled to travel to Grenada.
Dr. Cyrus said that ” rather than having security take the prisoners downtown to get dental care, the inmates would be able to walk over to the clinic inside the prison itself and get their work done.’’
Dr. Cyrus is a frequent visitor to his homeland. He not only has provided free dental care to hundreds of Grenadians but also has delivered lectures on moral values and ethics to prison inmates and to young people at a juvenile centre in Grenada.
Last month, he travelled to Grenada with two Canadian correctional officers, who provided training for prison and police officers.
A former student of the Grenada Boys’ Secondary School, Dr. Cyrus graduated from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1989.