Children who are born with hearing loss in developing countries, such as Kenya, thus have very little chance of living a normal life. As in other developing countries, little or no medical and audiological care is available to them.

The consequences of untreated hearing loss are serious: Children have difficulty learning to speak and develop more slowly than is appropriate for their age. Primarily affected are those children from socially disadvantaged families who thus have no chance to integrate, as they are barely accepted in schools and are not promoted in any way – the result is that they are often isolated and excluded from society.

The Hear the World Foundation has now been supporting children with hearing loss in Nairobi since 2008. In close cooperation with Cargo Human Care, the Foundation has established a hearing centre in the Cargo Human Care Medical Center in Nairobi. There, the German ENT physician, Dr. Michaela Fuchs, offers regular consultation hours at no charge and performs hearing tests. Only those who can afford it pay a symbolic amount. The Hear the World Foundation also supplies needy children with hearing aids donated by the Swiss hearing aid manufacturer, Phonak. Thanks to the new digital hearing aids, the children of the Joymereen school for children with hearing loss and the children in the Jabali Kindergarten are thus making considerable progress. And affected children in the Mathare Valley, Nairobi’s second largest slum, are also receiving free devices, which are too exorbitant for large sections of the Kenyan population.

In order to lastingly care for these children, the Hear the World Foundation has built up a support ring. Aside from the ENT physicians in the Cargo Human Care Medical Center, this includes a local hearing aid acoustician, who adjusts the hearing aids and provides free aftercare, as well as a parental self-help group.

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