Worldwide an average of three percent of all children are born with some type of hearing disorder. In Bali the figures are from 1 – 3%. The reason we don’t know the exact figures is that there is not universal screening at birth. There are many hearing impaired children in Bali who could benefit from hearing aids. Children who do not hear well enough to develop language before the age of 6 or 7, will probably never be able to do so. The area of the brain responsible for language development will not respond after that. Even if diagnosed and fitted at age 4 or 5, a child will probably never catch up. We are looking for donors to either fund the purchase of new hearing aids or pay for the maintenance costs for used ones; for needed testing equipment and for furniture and supplies for the Schools for the Hearing Impaired.
Thanks to generous donations from the Annika Linden Foundation, we are able to continue to expand our services to the hearing impaired community.
The CV Lumina Hearing Center received a very generous donation of a critical piece of hearing testing equipment that will enable the accurate diagnosis of hearing disability in infants and young children. This unit – a GSI Audera ABR/OAE (BERA) System was donated by VIASYS Heathcare of the United States. CV Lumina is very excited to have this very advanced piece of equipment – the first of its kind in the island of Bali (and one of two in all of Indonesia) – because it means that we can now identify and provide hearing aids for hearing loss in babies and toddlers. This will greatly increase their speech and language development potential.
Background to Hearing Loss in Bali
Hearing loss for children presents a physical, emotional and social challenge that is difficult to describe. For the children affected in Bali, this challenge is compounded by a lack of resources and an inability to access hearing aids, receive corrective medical treatment, or even achieve an education. Assessing children for hearing loss in Bali has up until very recently been almost impossible due to a lack of facilities and trained personnel. read more...