By Annerina Grobbelaar | Audiologist and project leader
In our last newsletter we mentioned that we will be de-activating our project soon, because of the massive donation we have received from the Hear the World Foundation. The equipment was delivered, and as soon as the soundproof booth arrives, we can set up a state-of-the-art hearing clinic in our rural area! What a moment! As promised, please find the attached pictures of some of the equipment in this report, as well as the boards that was put up at all the clinics to inform everybody that sees it of our project and to encourage the mothers to bring their children on the designated days! Our utmost thanks to everybody who has helped us to realise this dream! Be sure that you have helped us change the lives of all our deaf children in our area and have contributed towards a bright future for them!
One of our kids who was diagnosed with hearing loss last year, has recently become a candidate for a cochlear implant. Blessing Tsenoli is a 3-year old boy who was diagnosed with profound hearing loss last year. He has been wearing hearing aids since October 2013, but as we suspected, his hearing loss is so great that even the strongest hearing aids cannot make speech audible enough for him to learn spoken language. Therefore he needs a cochlear implant so that his brain can have access to speech in order for him to learn to talk. There are only two schools for the deaf in our province, and although we are grateful for the work they are doing, it is not the best option for Blessing and his family. His family would like him to learn to talk and attend a local mainstream school, and for that we need your help!
The Free State Department of Health is in severe financial trouble, and there are no funds available to pay for cochlear implants for government patients like Blessing who cannot afford private healthcare. So his family need to raise the money to pay for it themselves. Blessing’s family is very involved with his disability – they make sure that he wears his hearing aids every waking moment, they are looking after the hearing aids extremely well and they attend all their appointments with myself and the speech therapist without fail.The whole family is actively involved with the whole therapy process. Blessing has been through all the evaluations to determine if he is a good candidate for a cochlear implant, and the general impression seems to be very positive! Blessing’s mum is the only employed family member – she is a security guard at the local magistrate’s court, and his father is waiting to hear if he has a contract with another security company as well. Their total monthly income for the family is about $400, so they desperately need our help! We are providing all therapy and audiological services for free, but the family wants to maintain the hearing aids – buy batteries, earmolds, etc.
We need to raise about $15 000 for the implant – it is very expensive, but will radically change Blessing’s future! The link for the project to raise money for Blessing’s cochlear implant is http://globalgiving.org/projects/help-blessing-hear/ With our poor Rand, donations received in US Dollar goes a loooong way! Blessing's mother and father are working very hard to help with the fundraising, so we really feel they deserve all the support they can get!
"Hope is not a form of guarantee; it's a form of energy, and very frequently that energy is strongest in circumstances that are very dark..." (John Berger)
Have a blessed day!
The Sound for Silence Team
Links:
By Annerina Grobbelaar | Project Leader & Pediatric Audiologist
By Chi Nguyen | In-the-Field Representative
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