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Cambridge audiologists have brought new sounds to Tanzania with a generous donation of their spare and retired hearing aids to the East African country’s hard-of-hearing children. Over the past 18 months, clients of Cambridge Audiology Specialists, Hearing Healthcare Centre, in Chesterton, have donated their spare and retired hearing aids which have been refurbished and redistributed for use by others.

Staff and clients of Hearing Healthcare Centre have always made a special effort to contribute hearing aids to those less privileged, with donations often going to impoverished countries where hearing aids would otherwise be unavailable.

And last Thursday, all donations of hearing aids and audiological equipment were gifted to local charity, ‘Tanzanear’ to help these children rediscover their hearing.

The UK charity is dedicated to helping deaf people in Tanzania lead richer and more fulfilling lives by working with Buguruni School for the Deaf, a primary school, and UMIVITA, a small NGO, run by young deaf adults, which provides advocacy and support services to deaf people in Dar es Salaam. They also work closely with the Tanzania Society for the Deaf, the NGO which owns Buguruni School, and are linking to Soundseekers in Tanzania, which used to be the Commonwealth Society for the Deaf.

Hearing Healthcare Centre’s Audiologist Daniel Bainbridge said: “Tanzanear is a great charity, and one that we felt would truly benefit from this donation.”

 

26/05/16 Hearing Healthcare Centre donation 26/05/16 Andy Coughlan from Hearing Healthcare Centre is donating hearing aids and audiological equipment to local charity, ‘Tanzanear’ to help these children rediscover their hearing. Show, from left, Audiologist, Daniel Bainbridge, Andy Coughlan, Director and Operations Manager of Hearing Healthcare Centre and Joanne Deane, committee member of ‘Tanzanear’ and senior audiologist at Addenbrookes hospital. Picture: Warren Gunn

As Audiological Specialists, nobody knows better than us, the importance that hearing aids play in enabling good conversation and social interaction. Most importantly, we understand the need for early intervention in children with deafness. Undiagnosed, hearing loss in children can cause social withdrawal, learning difficulties, as well as depression.

The work that ‘Tanzanear’ does is vitally important to these children. They provide a formal education using sign language, and hearing aids to the children that would most benefit. This allows the children to develop better language skills and gives them the tools to cultivate and obtain jobs in the future.

Unfortunately, ‘Tanzanear’ is only a small charity and therefore they cannot help everyone. Currently, only one per cent of deaf children in Tanzania go to school, which means that there are still almost 38,000 children who still need help.”

Nigel Roberts, from the charity Tanzanear, said the donation was much welcomed – “There is such a shortage of good audiological equipment in Tanzania that these donations could not be more welcome” he said, “The children of Buguruni School for the Deaf in Dar es Salaam will be the main beneficiaries of this and Tanzanear thanks you very much on their behalf.

To encourage hearing aid users to donate their old hearing aids, Hearing Healthcare Centre is offering FREE Hearing Health Checks to everybody who donates.

To donate, you can drop by any of Hearing Healthcare Centre’s branches in Saffron Walden, Cambridge or Newmarket. For details, call 01223 360700.

For more information on the charity, visit tanzanear.gov or donate directly via justgiving.com/tanzanear.