Background information

The World Health Organisation estimates that at least 250 million people have a disabling hearing loss. Two-thirds of these live in developing countries where resources to prevent hearing impairment and to find and help those who are affected are very limited.

There are many causes of hearing loss in developing countries and it is believed that around 50% are preventable.

The Trustees have experience of working with hearing impaired and deaf adults in Britain and in developing counties and have helped provide training for others coming to Britain from more disadvantaged economies. This has brought an understanding of what is required to support the development of professionals and services in these areas and has created a desire to help provide assistance.

As part of the work AUD-M-ED has done, we've dealt with people from many different countries around the world, all with different situations from the one those in Europe are used to. Click on the links below to find out more about audiology in:

• China
• Ghana
• Iraq
• Kenya
• Russia
• Nepal
• Malawi
• Madagascar
• Zanzibar
• India
• Peru
• Cambodia
• Jordan
• Nigeria
• Zambia
• Botswana
• Namibia
• Vietnam

We sent 2 Micromate screening audiometers to Namibia

Background
In February 2009 CLaSH submitted a project proposal to AUD-M-ED regarding an outreach project to help identify children with hearing impairments in the rural Northern regions of Namibia. The project was accepted and an amount of N$ 27.000 was granted to support accommodation and travel costs during the outreach project.

Aims of the project

• To help identify children with hearing impairment in the rural Northern areas of Namibia
• To assist the creation of a database outlining causes and incidence of hearing loss
• To support the establishment of parent support groups and early childhood development centres for deaf children
• To create awareness about the specific communication needs of deaf and hard-of-hearing children

The Project: Screening of Hearing in the Kavango region
On a Sunday at the end of July, CLaSH staff member Annelis and two volunteer acousticians from Germany, Corinna and Vanessa travelled 800 km from Windhoek to Rundu, the capital of the Kavango region. During the next two weeks they visited a total of 16 rural schools, some of them 200 km out of town. They assessed 238 identified learners by first doing an otoscopic evaluation and then a hearing screening. Where indicated this was followed up by a diagnostic evaluation (measuring air and bone conduction) and a tympanogram. 94 children with wet ears and chronic or acute infections were referred for medical treatment to the hospital. Profoundly deaf learners were informed about the existing units for the Deaf at two mainstream schools in Rundu. 19 learners (and 3 teachers) were identified to benefit from hearing aids and impressions for ear moulds were taken for monaural or binaural fitting.

The vast majority of the children have never been tested before; they were extremely shy and inhibited and needed a lot of encouragement before they could be conditioned. To establish a comfortable relationship between children and acousticians thus took considerably more time than anticipated.

Most of the referrals to the hospital were chronic middle ear infections and running ears, a common problem in Namibia’s North. The German volunteers had never seen such big perforations of the ear drum and such damaged middle ears. It is very unfortunate that for the past few months already Rundu Hospital’s ENT clinic has neither an ENT specialist nor an audiologist.

On their last day the team assisted learners from the Deaf units to obtain all the necessary documentation to apply for a disability grant. They tested 20 pupils and provided them with audiograms thus proving officially their degree of hearing loss.

Back in Windhoek, Vanessa, one of the acousticians had to return to Germany while the other one, Corinna, started preparing the moulds and hearing aids. She could use the laboratory at Windhoek Hearing Aids where a Deaf technician assisted her in the production of moulds. Then she selected from a variety of donated new and refurbished second-hand instruments the ones that were most suitable for the individual client.

At the beginning of September, just after the school holidays, Corinna travelled back to Rundu where she was once again assisted by the Inclusive Education Team. She conducted introductory workshops for the teachers and parents of those learners, who were receiving hearing aids to teach them the basics of using and maintaining the instruments. She handed out the CLaSH leaflets with information about behind-the-ear aids, gave each client two sets of batteries and spent a lot of time explaining what hearing aids can and cannot do.

She also saw some of the cases that had been referred for medical treatment and expressed her satisfaction about the results of a treatment with antibiotics. Some clinics, however, had merely prescribed painkillers. That obviously did not improve the condition of the patients.

Follow-up
It is hoped that the members of the Inclusive Education Team Kavango, who have all been trained in the basic handling of hearing aids will manage to monitor the use of the instruments in school and carry out regular checks with regard to their functioning. A monitoring schedule has been agreed upon and regular feedback will be given to CLaSH.

We are deeply grateful for the support we received from AUD-M-ED, both financially and in kind and we are looking forward to further cooperation in the future.