Hearing Impaired Screening Camp - MG with RC of Galesburg - ROTI Project

This matching grant project which is partnered with Rotary Club of Galesburg, Illinois, started yesterday with the first screening camp and had a wonderful response.

Many residents of close to 19 villages  surrounding the camp had come and some of them staying as far as 35 kilometers away on the outskirts of North Chennai.  The campaign for calling people to get checked was extremely effective and from these villages whose population is close to about 4000 numbers, we were able to call about 200 of them to visit in a single day.  The effectiveness of the campaigning done by Dr Sandhya Ruban (of Eternity Foundation)  and her team of volunteers was fantastic, enabling it specifically call for patients with hearing abnormalities.

We had team of the following specialists :

DR KAMATCHIPANDIAN – DOCTOR ATTACCHED TO E N T DEPARTMENT K M C

MR PRAVESH – AUDIOLOGIST

MR SANDEEP – AUDIOLOGIST

We were also honoured to have the presence of Mrs Neela Govindaraj ( Speech Therapist and Language Assessor of specially challenged) who had accompanied with Ms Uma (a social service initiator who also works with IBM).  Both Mrs Neela and Ms Uma sat for a long time and helped in coordinating and handling the visiting patients. They interacted and counseled the visitors on a one to one basis, which was really interesting to see them doing their roles in gathering more insights to the various challenges faced by the villagers.

We also witnessed misery at its lowest point  in the case of certain individuals who felt extremely helpless with their lives.  Hence we could sense there was lots to be done in terms of community service to these villages, and there was potential for plenty of them who needed to be living in standard basic amenities.

Finally coming back to hearing impairment and hearing aid cases, we have crossed 100 deserving beneficiaries and individuals cases are being discussed in a couple of days with the Doctors, to analyse and shortlist hearing aids beneficiaries.

Camp to identify Hearing Impaired - 27th Oct 2013

While the RC Chennai Kilpauk has been providing hearing aids to those with hearing impairment the last few years we made a decision to depart from the usual practice of providing hearing aids to those who were identified and needing hearing aids.

This time our Project Chairman - Rtn Divyesh Palicha decided to hold a large one day camp to identify beneficiaries on the following
1. Many, do not accept that they have a hearing problem and continue to live as they do without seeking help, the elderly believe that it is because of age and the youngsters are shy and do not come forward.
2. If we do not conduct a camp to identify such people they may never seek help and will continue to live in such conditions for a longer time.

Divyesh was informed that if he conducts a camp only for the hearing impaired the response would be poor as people would come and spread the word that the camp was only for the hearing impaired and many would stay away from the camp and not be screeened. Divyesh and his team have planned to also have a GP who will first screen the attendees provide them with medication if any for any ailment they may or believe that they have and then send them through for the audiometry tests.

More than 10 Rotarians and over 20 volunteers participated in this camp. Divyesh has been planning and preparing for this camp the last 3 weeks.

Hearing Impaired

We had received requests from 15 people for hearing aids. These children were not able to hear and their parents believed that they would start hearing if they were able to get them hearing aids.

The date was fixed for the 13th of December and these children came into Chennai with their parents. Rtn. Divyesh Palicha had arranged for audiometry tests at Eljay Agency- a business that deals with hearing aids. Tests were carried out and results were ready and Divyesh called me and said "Let us meet at Eljay so we can go through the results and make a decision on the apparatus and further tests if any are required"

Children waiting for their audiometry tests

We met at Eljay Agencies and sqw the results, 11 were ready for haring aids, 2 children had to meet a ENT and 2 had to go through BERA tests (Brain Evoken Response Audiometry) this test was required as the 2 children were actually infants and were not able to respond properly to the audiometry tests.

Sukanya after experiencing sound

Sukanya a girl who was ready for her hearing aids was called in to see how she responded,a hearing aid was taken and affixed to her ears and then she experienced magic, she was for the first time in her life able to hear a sound though it was only our voices. She was asked what her name was and she could not answer, she was asked what her father's name was and she responded "sgumpore" mumbled, unclear. She had never spoken continuously in her life and now she had to listen and then speak, a great and wonderful task. Sukanya was used to sign language and now she could hear and the sounds in her ears made her cry. She could not belileve that it was possible. Sukanya ran out with the hearing aid to her father and mother and asked them to speak - for the first time she heard her mother's voice and then her father's, this was joy and a smile quickly followed by tears. Sukanya then heard something that we tend to ignore, a passing car playing music, she listened and then turned to look at the car and then she heard for the first time in her life, music. It did not matter  that the song was in a language that she did not know, it was music and a new experience.

Emotions were high and many children who had come for the tests realised that they too would be able to experience sounds soon.

the orders for the hearing aids have been confirmed and these 11 children will get their hearing aids on 23rd of December evening. A few days before Christmas, the gift of sound, the gift of music. To be able to listen to music, listen to the voice of their mothers', to be able to respond to ones own name.

Great project and very very satisfying.

Thanks to Rtn Divyesh Palicha for making this happen.