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Projects
India - HARK!
 In
2004 we shipped a HARK! Mobile clinic - and its full complement
of audiological equipment - from South Africa to India,
where it will be operated on our behalf by the Sylvia
Wright Trust. This HARK!, based in Tiruvannamalai, is
providing full ear-screening and treatment services to
children in the poorest communities of the Tamil Nadu
region. |
Uganda - AMT (Audiology Maintenance Technology)
Each year, Sound Seekers runs a training course that equips
technicians with the specialist skills, experience and knowledge
they need to enable them to:
- Calibrate and maintain equipment such as audiometers
- Make earmoulds and fit hearing aids
These essential skills ensure that important equipment is
effectively maintained.
Students of the 2003 AMT course with
Sound Seekers' Peggy Chalmers
Since 2003 the course has been based at the Kyambogo University,
Kampala, Uganda - the decision having been taken to relocate
to Africa to reduce the costs. The course is attended by students
from all over Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. If you want
to find out more about this course and how to enrol, click
here for more details. If you want to find out more about
this course and how to enrol, click
here for more details
Meanwhile the Ugandan HARK! mobile clinic continues to provide
an audiology service to remote parts of the country.
Namibia HARK!
Mobile Hark! vehicle |
The HARK! Namibia project was launched in February 2002
and is based at Oshakati in the north of the country,
close to the Angolan border. It is staffed by two senior
nursing sisters, Kalista and Magdalena, who were trained
in audiology by Sound Seekers. The Society has also
sponsored an audiologist/speech therapist to support
this HARK! programme, through VSO.
Since its launch the HARK team, which is managed on
our behalf by CLaSH - the Association for Children with
Language, Speech and Hearing Impairments of Namibia,
has been innovative in working to increase parental
participation in their deaf children's education and
set up a parents' support group. They have also expanded
the project outside the initial Oshana region, to Omusati
and Ohangwena regions, with an established itinerary
of regular visits.
Click here to
read Maria's story
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Swaziland - Swazi Earcare
Swaziland is a country of approximately one million people
which until recently had little more than basic ENT facilities
run by one surgeon and no audiology service available to the
public. Sound Seekers launched Swazi-Earcare in April 2003,
therefore, to establish a principal audiology clinic at the
Government Hospital in Mbabane.
Swazi Earcare nurse at work |
Two Swazi nursing Sisters have been trained as Audiology
Practitioners and the Society has provided further basic
audiology training to nurses at the Manzini and Piggs
Peak Hospitals. We have also established a Laboratory
to support the work of the Audiology Practitioners,
staffed by two technicians whose role includes the maintenance
and repair of all audiology electronic equipment and
hearing aids and the production of individual earmoulds
for patients treated at the Clinic.
Swazi-Earcare has taken 4 years to plan, fund and execute
and Swaziland, one of the poorest developing countries
of Sub-Saharan Africa, now possesses an audiology service
of which it can be proud.
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Lesotho - HARK!
Lesotho HARK! nurses
Masetona and Tlaleng |
Lesotho is small country entirely surrounded and landlocked
by South Africa. It has a population of 2 million, with
an extremely mountainous terrain. It is one of the world's
poorest countries, with life expectancy - largely as
a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic - estimated to reduce
from 66 to 45 years by 2010.
The country's lack of wealth and transport is most
evident. Until the arrival of Sound Seekers, Lesotho
was desperately short of professionals equipped to identify
impaired hearing and middle ear disease and provide
relevant care. The Lesotho HARK! project has helped
to address this problem, by providing a mobile HARK!
clinic equipped with specialist equipment, and staffed
by two nurses trained in audiology by the Society.
A teacher recently trained at the School of Audiology
in London has now been employed to strengthen the team,
helping young people in remote and isolated villages.
Click here to
read Quetha's story
|
Plans for the future
 Following
hard from our success with HARK! India we have several
Indian projects ready to go and are actively fundraising
to enable this work to begin as soon as possible. Our
next big project in Africa is an effort to repeat the
success of Swazi Earcare, this time in Sierra Leone. |
Sierra Leone Earcare
National School for Deaf Children,
Freetown |
After a decade of civil war, the national infrastructure
of Sierra Leone has been left badly fragmented. The
country is the poorest in the world and desperately
needs external assistance. The health service has not
functioned adequately for many years, and the country
currently does not have an audiology service - what
equipment existed was either stolen or destroyed by
the rebels during the war. It has only one ENT surgeon
in Government service, working in a dilapidated clinic
(in Connaught Hospital, Freetown), which is woefully
ill equipped for the task in hand.
The overall aim of the Sierra Leone Earcare project
is similar, but significantly broader than the previously-funded
Swazi-Earcare project, in that we seek to establish
an audiology service for the country, provide a mobile
hearing assessment and treatment clinic (HARK!) to deliver
an outreach service to rural areas, and also provide
at least the basic suite of equipment for the ENT clinic
at Connaught Hospital, so that it can become the treatment
'hub' for a new national ENT/audiology service, as well
as becoming an accredited training centre for ENT and
audiology within the country.
We are now fundraising for this project and need your
support. If you can help in any way, please
click here
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