Delmont dentist Annette Merlino usually is the team leader on the mission trips she organizes to bring dental care to underdeveloped, undereducated and undernourished areas of Africa, Chili and Honduras.

But three weeks ago, she was looking at the website for the Christian Medical and Dental Association and she saw that female dentists were urgently needed in Nicaragua. A trip was scheduled for Jan. 8-15.

She wasted no time in signing on to be a part of a medical team of more than 20 doctors, nurses and lay people to care for young girls who have been victims of trafficking and prostitution.

"I haven't even met anyone else who is going," she said Friday, the day before she left.

The professionals are serving at the medical facility for House of Hope in Managua. Dr. Merlino is working alongside a recently hired female dentist and this time she did not have to haul her own mobile equipment with her.

"Dentistry is one of their biggest needs," Dr. Merlino said. "After what these girls have been through, to get close to a male might be a little scary," she said.

Since 2001, House of Hope has been an evangelistic outreach program and home to more than 60 women and girls who had been living brutal lives on the streets.

At House of Hope, "they are offered encouragement and taught to realize their self worth. It is stressed that God loves them," she said.

The women are also taught life skills and offered classes in how to make jewelry and greeting cards as a means to provide for themselves and their families. Through "micro grants" of $75, Americans can sponsor these women to start a business of their own. One woman, Dr. Merlino recalled, is now selling soft drinks outside a local office building to earn money.

Dr. Merlino knew she wanted to do mission work since, as a child, she heard missionaries speak at her church. She considers dentistry to be a God-given gift to her that she should share through mission work.

After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh dental school in 1988, she practiced for four months in Kenya, where she took "dental safaris" to the Masaai tribe in the Rift Valley and the Turkana nomadic tribe in the small town of Kijabi, near Nairobi.

In 1998, Dr. Merlino journeyed to the small bay island of Guanaga in Honduras. Even after witnessing a shooting on the beach from the boat used to navigate the island, she continued to return, often with dental students. The teams provide nutritional education and dental care to the needy at a dental clinic in the small town on the island. They also spend a few days trekking to outlying areas. In cases where no electricity is available, the dentists may be able to perform only cleanings or extractions.

April will mark her 10th trip to the island.

"Because these people don't have an extra income, they're just barely making it," she said, adding that she believes education is their biggest need. "Some can afford it, usually up to sixth grade. After that, parents need kids to work, and they can't afford the uniforms. With education, they learn what to do and not to do in life and it also creates opportunities."

Dr. Merlino, who lives in Delmont, gets a great deal of support from her husband, Thomas Felmley, and their 3-year-old daughter, Leia. Mr. Felmley is a missionary with Mission to the World and trains other mission workers in disaster relief.

"When God puts the plan out there, the rest is easy," Dr. Merlino said.