Roman is an orphan. He is six years old. He is deaf in both ears and, unfortunately, was not diagnosed with deafness right away. A few months ago he received a cochlear implant and today he is gradually discovering the world of sounds for himself.

Roman had an implant surgery when he was already six. By this age children’s hearing and speech are well developed. Without hearing memory it is very difficult for Roman to recognize most common sounds of wind or a car driving by. Our Fund made a commitment to help Roman. We invited him to two of our online rehabilitation programs. After his first online program, Roman was able to distinguish between some sounds and say his first words. He focused and worked very hard through each exercise.

Roman is currently attending the 1st grade at a regular school, while working with receiving additional support from our instructors through online sessions. Roman's story reminds us that miracles do happen, we just have to believe in them!

Along with Roman, 29 more children, assisted by our 4 instructors, successfully completed the online program. Training materials developed by our specialists help children continue learning at home with their parents. All our children will receive Christmas presents for Christmas.

In January and Fabruary we are planning to deliver two more online programs for 60 more children.

Online learning allows us to continue our work and effectively manage health risks for all of the participants.

We would like to express our gratitude to all who took part in this project, our sponsors and to the entire GlobalGiving Team.

Sincerely, Larysa Kuzmenko

Project Manager

The child's name has been changed

By Larysa Kuzmenko – Project leader

Dear Friends, despite COVID-19 quarantine, we look for ways to continue our work aimed at rehabilitation of children experiencing loss of hearing and speech.

Auditory rehabilitation is the most important stage in children’s lives after cochlear implant surgery.

Today more than 80 children are in urgent need for post-surgery rehabilitation. It is critical for children to undergo rehabilitation shortly after surgery. In order to not expose children with weakened immune system to COVID-19, we have developed an online learning platform to deliver post-surgery rehabilitation.

Qualified instructors such as speech therapist, audiologist and music therapist conduct individual learning sessions with children and their parents online. Class curriculum focuses on development of speech breathing and speech rhythm. Since early June we have already delivered training sessions for 36 children and their parents and each child completed 10 individual classes. After completion of the online course, families received training materials needed to continue training at home and online access to additional consultations with speech therapists. Online learning  allows  us to provide timely rehabilitation program to children and their families, without creating any risk to their health.

 We want to express our thanks to all project participants, our donors and the entire GlobalGiving team. 

Ukraine, much like many other countries fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, has implemented strict quarantine measures. Due to this, unfortunately, during these unprecedented circumstances our organization is currently unable to carry out our project supporting rehabilitation of children with hearing disabilities. We are postponing our next rehabilitation camp program, currently scheduled for May 15th, to a later date, after the end of quarantine. We hope this day will come very soon. We want to thank GlobalGiving Team and our sponsors for your continued support and understanding.

Sincerely,

Larysa Kuzmenko

Project Manager