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SmileHigh departure

CAMERON BURNELL/Taranaki Daily News

READY TO GO: Taranaki Daily News web producer Mike Scott packs his laptop and camera for his trip to Nepal to document the work of the aid organisation SmileHigh.

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Taranaki Daily News web producer Mike Scott leaves for Nepal today to cover the work of SmileHigh, the dental aid organisation co-founded by Taranaki orthodontist Dr Julian Haszard. He talks about his mountain mission.

This project is about a mission, a man and a high mountain and the Taranaki Daily News will be right amongst the action.

Trusting the satellite links work, I will send back stories to the Taranaki Daily News paper and website, taranakidailynews.co.nz, and will be posting tweets on the social networking website, Twitter, at www.twitter.com/mykeyscott.

Through words, photos and videos I will document the aid work of SmileHigh, helping increase its profile and donations and in turn help the smilesof the children in Nepal.

The mission of SmileHigh's dental expedition to the remote Samagon region is to fix the oral health of local children.

It is a sure thing that improving the oral health of these children will improve their standard of living immeasurably.

The man of this project is Dr Julian Haszard, a 32-year-old orthodontist and mountaineer from Taranaki who co-founded SmileHigh. It is easy to be impressed by Dr Haszard, a likeable achiever with a humanitarian bent, possibly the dental equivalent of Fred Hollows.

The mountain is Manaslu, the world's eighth highest at 8163m (26,759ft) with a reputation of being a hard climb. Dr Haszard is self-funding his ascent of this peak and is hoping to raise one dollar for every foot he ascends.

This is not all this story will contain.

There will be a host of other characters, including SmileHigh co-founder Mingma Sherpa, internationally known Himalayan expedition leader and Kiwi Russell Brice, the international team of dentists working in the clinic and, of course, the people of Nepal.

There will be many challenges for all, including the dentist climbers and even myself reporting from this remote corner of the world.

- © Fairfax NZ News