Projects worldwide

The Hear the World Foundation is committed to improve the quality of life and promote equal opportunities for people with hearing loss globally. The Foundation has a special focus on projects that support children reach their development milestones and realize their full potential in life regardless of their hearing loss.

CURRENT PROJECTS

Special Olympics

The Special Olympics are the world’s biggest sport movement, officially recognised by the Olympic Committee (IOC), for people with intellectual and multiple disabilities. Over 3.5 million children, young people and adults take part in the sporting activities and competitions.

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United States, since 2011

52 Children

With the "52 Children" project the Hear the World Foundation to provides 52 disadvantaged children per year from around the world with the gift of better hearing. These children will not only receive hearing aids, but professional aftercare will be provided by a local representative or a Phonak partner. 

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Switzerland, since 2010

Regain Hearing - Join Life

In close collaboration with the German association, Cargo Human Care, the Hear the World Foundation established a hearing center in Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi, in 2008. Not only is a medical center supported here, hearing aids are also donated and a local audiologist who professionally fits the hearing aids and performs regular follow-up examinations is on the books. In addition, the commitment also includes the Jabali Kindergarten and the Joymereen School for the Deaf in Nairobi, where children with hearing loss are granted a sound education.

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Kenya, since 2008

Tribute to Dr. Judith S. Gravel

The Hear the World Foundation finances the Judith S. Gravel Education Fund at the renowned Bil Wilkerson Center at the Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Through this fund the University is able to offer one of their most promising students a scholarship in pediatric audiology as well as developing a high-quality lecture series based on the most recent findings in pediatric audiology.

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United States, since 2013

Promoting musical career

17-year old Yerko DiFonis from Chile has been blind with hearing loss since birth. Despite his constraint, he is considered to be an extraordinary musical talent. When he plays piano, he sees the world through his ears. The Hear the World Foundation financially promotes his talent and  supports his training. 

Chile, since 2010

Early detection and treatment of hearing loss

Uganda, since 2013

The present of hearing for Panamian children and adoloscents

Panama, since 2013

Encouraging young people

South Africa, since 2013

Recycling and reconditioning hearing aids and audiological equipment

United Kingdom, since 2013

Audiological care in rural areas

United States, since 2013

Sustainable parent-to-parent support

United States, since 2013

Homage to Dr. Judith Gravel

In honor of Dr. Judith Gravel, who died in 2008, the Hear the World Foundation and the Vanderbilt University launched a joint support program for highly qualified and promising young audiologists in 2010. Since then the Hear the World Foundation has annually awarded the Judith Gravel Fellowship to a particularly committed and talented audiology student.

United States, since 2012

First audiological clinic in the country

Australian couple Peter und Rebecca Bartlett who run the EARS Inc. organisation perform true pioneering work in Malawi in South Africa. In a place where the majority of inhabitants live on less than one US dollar a day and there is no professional audiological care whatsoever available in the entire country, the two have built up a small clinic for people with hearing loss.

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Malawi, since 2011

Happy little ears

The medical care in remote villages in Guatemala is inadequate at best. Particularly affected by this is the Maya population group, which constitutes 65% and thus the majority of the rural population. Professional help is urgently required there but can only be provided inadequately and irregularly, if at all. Thus, for example, hearing damage often remains undetected and untreated, which in turn means that the development of affected children is considerably impaired. As a result, school lessons and an associated development in keeping with their age group are only possible to a limited extent for many such children, if at all.

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Guatemala, since 2012

IMEDI means hope

School no. 203 for children with hearing loss was founded in Georgia’s capital city, Tbilisi, almost 90 years ago. The approx. 200 students between six and 20 years old mainly come from impoverished families and live, to some extent,  in the affiliated boarding school. Even if great importance is attached to the family in Georgia, there are still numerous desperate and penniless parents who see no other way out than to give their children away due to their handicap.

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Georgia, since 2010

Suddenly being able to hear again

Even though the Vietnamese economy has developed at a record speed in recent years and the government has finally created a legal basis in order to integrate children with handicaps in society, many attempts fail due to the severely limited budget. Children with hearing loss receive better support in the Ha Giang Welfare Center for Handicapped Children, thanks to a joint project of Caritas Switzerland and the Hear the World Foundation. Children are allowed to stay in the home for a maximum of two years. During that time they are thoroughly examined, supplied with a hearing aid and – in addition to normal school lessons – receive individual support lessons and speech therapy.

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Vietnam, since 2011

Set-up of audiological care on the Island

Since 2010 the Hear the World Foundation has been supporting the Australian Organisation EARS, which has a highly motivated and committed employee in the Dominican Republic in the shape of Donna Carkeet. The Hear the World Foundation contributes financial resources to enable future audiologists to be trained and a good technological standard for audiological diagnosis and subsequent care to be established.

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Dominican Republic, since 2010

Collaboration between two clinics

The Arabkir Hospital in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, has been receiving extensive support from the Children’s University Hospital in Zurich for twenty years. The Swiss colleagues constitute an indispensable partner for the Armenian children’s hospital, as the small country has already had to surmount many hurdles in its history: an earthquake that left 25,000 dead, a difficult path into independence and an economic embargo. A functioning health insurance system is still lacking today. 60 per cent of the health care expenditure has to be paid out of the population’s own pocket. The Hear the World Foundation has been financially supporting the partnership since 2010 and regularly donates new hearing aids.

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Armenia, since 2011

Together instead of alone

Canada is the second largest country on earth, but what people in densely populated Europe associate with great freedom often means loneliness and isolation for Canadian children with hearing loss, as they hardly ever meet any other children with the same handicap as they have. They are usually the only children in their school with a hearing aid. Thus, an organization such as the Northern BC Children and Families Hearing Society is all the more important for such children. The Hear the World Foundation provides them with active support.

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Canada, since 2011

Sensitizing towards the topic of hearing

The Hear 2day information campaign of the Grow Smart Foundation is intended to inform Australian children about the topic of hearing loss in a one-hour workshop. The Foundation provides the necessary support for the work-shop.

Australia, since 2012

CLOSED PROJECTS

Fighting poverty with information and knowledge

Hearing loss in countries such as Cambodia has many causes. They range from incorrectly treated inflammations of the middle ear, overdosed malaria medications via acoustic trauma due to landmines and culminate in damage to the cochlea nerve in cases of leprosy. Together with the Hear the World Foundation, the aim of the All Ears Cambodia (AEC) Organisation is to decisively improve the healthy hearing of 14 million Cambodians.

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Cambodia, 2010 until 2012

Hearing Instruments for children in need

The Hear the World Foundation donates 50 hearing instruments with a total value of more than CHF 100'000.- to children and young people with a hearing loss from Klong Toey, one of the biggest slums in Bangkok. The Swiss Federal Councilor Didier Burkhalter formally presented the donation during his visit to Bangkok in November 2012.

Thailand, 2012 

Innovative telemedicine

Three physicians from Nigeria, Malawi and South Africa want to improve the care of people with hearing loss in Africa. The Hearing Health Care Consortium aims to enable the transfer of audiological knowledge via the establishment of a telemedicine network. The project receives financial support from the foundation. 

Nigeria, 2012 

Communication thanks to solar light

Cite Soleil in Haiti numbers among the slums with the worst criminality rates in the world. Danger primarily sets in once the sun goes down – and especially for people with hearing loss, which is why the Haiti Deaf Community has received financial support to install solar lighting to ensure that visual communication can also take place at night.

United States, 2012 

Good hearing - even for penniless people

Many families in Kalamazoo Country live below the poverty level. Audiology students in the Kalamazoo Poverty Reduction Initiative combat this and supply the penniless with food, clothing, medicine and hearing tests. To promote and further expand the project, financial support is provided.

United States, 2012 

Sensorially stimulating playground

Learning the most fundamental principles in life effortlessly. That's the requirement of playgrounds for children with reduced hearing in the English Speech Language and Hearing Centre in London, which receives financial support. The intention is to stimulate the sensory abilities via various materials, sounds and symbols.

United Kingdom, 2012 

Protecting hearing at work

The "Facts in Action international" non-profit organization wants to sensitize Kenyan craftsmen who are exposed to extremely high noise levels  due to their profession. The project aims to raise awareness of the danger of noise-related hardness of hearing and to motivate the craftsmen to protect their hearing.

Kenya, 2012 

Hearing tests far away from civilization

An audiology student at Western University, Canada, as well as an experienced audiologist travel to Attawapiskat (Canada) every year to offer hearing tests for children and adults in this remote, isolated place. The project receives financial support from the  Hear the World Foundation.

Canada, 2012 

Integration in primary schools

1,000 children with hearing loss have been benefiting to date from a project initiated in Vietnam by the American Paige Stringer. Affected by hearing loss herself, for the past three years the young woman has been committed to ensuring that Vietnamese children are able to achieve their full educational and personality potential.

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Vietnam, 2011 

Self-confidence for children with hearing loss

Great Britain is now also following the trend of integrating students with reduced hearing in primary schools. The aim is to promote the social interaction between children with handicaps and those without: an expedient approach from which both sides benefit.  Yet, no one knows better than the affected children themselves how it feels to always be the only one among lots of hearing children who are able to communicate with each other with no complications. A child who often only understands half of what the other children are saying to each other in the playground can quickly feel excluded.

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United Kingdom, 2011 until 2012

School education despite hearing loss

Students with reduced hearing are unable to make friends in public schools and universities via sign language, which is why the Mary Hare School attaches great importance to the correct learning of the spoken language. The school plus boarding school for 240 children with hearing loss is located 80 kilometers west of London and is the most important place of refuge for children with reduced hearing in the entire country. A few children even come here from abroad in order to benefit from the school’s excellent reputation and the impressive results.

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United Kingdom, 2011 

The country needs audiologists

Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados and The Bahamas – what sounds like a list of favorite holiday destinations are the campuses of the only university in the world with locations in four different countries. The University of the West Indies (UWI), founded in 1962, is the oldest university in the Caribbean and the only regional academic education to focus its curriculum on the needs of the Caribbean countries. Even though the tradition-steeped University of the West Indies has more than 40,000 registered students and produces 6,000 graduates annually, there is still no education for audiologists available there. Although competent audiologists are urgently needed in the Caribbean countries, to date no one has been able to learn the profession there. The Jamaican physician, Prof. Maureen Samms-Vaughan, wanted to change that.

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Jamaica, 2011 

Care under the most difficult of conditions

Rwanda, the “land of a thousand hills”, is considered to be one of the poorest countries in the world. Civil war and genocide – those are the two buzzwords associated with Rwanda. 800,000 people died and two million were expelled when the conflict between Hutu and Tutsi escalated in 1994. The children particularly are still suffering to this date from the consequences of war. According to information from Unicef, approximately 600,000 children are growing up in extreme poverty. Many of them have to survive alone without parents in “children’s households”.

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Rwanda, 2010 

The sound of the sea

The state of general medical care in Fiji cannot be compared with health care in industrial countries. In Germany, for instance, 337 inhabitants share one physician, whereas the ratio is 2100:1 in Fiji. Up to two years ago any treatment of hearing loss was scarcely imaginable. On the one hand there was a lack of physicians with the relevant training at their command; on the other hand the technical equipment needed to even enable a diagnosis to be made was unavailable.

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Fiji, 2010 

Hearing loss due to malaria

Quinine still continues to be part of the standard therapy for malaria. An inexpensive and widespread medication – but with a major disadvantage: many people are unaware that in the wrong dosage quinine can adversely affect hearing ability and even cause deafness. Thus, an above-average number of inhabitants in Uganda are affected by hearing loss. 

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Uganda, 2010 

Being one among many

For six days the summer camp of the Youth Section of the German Hearing Loss Federation allows young people and adults aged 14 to 35 years old to compare notes with people in the same situation in life. For once they belong to the majority rather than the minority. No one has to be considerate of them. For once they are able to feel as if they are one among many. 

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Germany, 2010 

Living without seeing and hearing

In a short film jointly financed by the  Hear the World Foundation, the Swiss National Association of and for the Blind (SZB) provides information on the living situation of deaf-blind people in Switzerland. It is the first Swiss study on this topic.

Switzerland, 2010 

Audiological care for Appalachia

In conjunction with the Red Bird Mission, the Hear the World Foundation cares for people with hearing loss in Appalachia, one of the poorest regions in the USA. It is supported by acousticians who perform hearing tests and fit hearing aids at no charge.

United States, 2010 

Growing up independently

The Swiss parents' organization SVEHK organizes an annual meeting for children with hearing loss and their parents. The main focus is on exchanging experiences with others who are affected. The  Hear the World Foundation supported the occasion.

Switzerland, 2009 

Investing prize money in building project

The Centro de Identificación de la Hipoacusia Infantil offers hearing tests, diagnosis and treatment for babies and small children in the northern province of Buenos Aires (Argentina). Its commitment was rewarded by the Richard Seewald Award in 2009. The prize money was invested in the construction of a modern facility.

Argentina, 2009 

Royal support

Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan has made the Al-Amal-School for children with hearing loss an affair of the heart. She would like to improve the learning environment to offer the children an optimal future. To enable this goal to be achieved the school was supplied with hearing aids and FM systems.

Jordan, 2009 

Individual and sustained learning

Without the ability to hear,  life in poverty is almost pre-programmed for children in Mauritius. That's where the Gonzague Pierre Louis Special Learning Center intervenes and helps children and young people with restricted hearing and seeing abilities. The Hear the World Foundation financed the school's extension.

Mauritius, 2009 

Listening as a vision

The aim in the Dominican Grimley School for Kinder with reduced hearing in Cape Town (South Africa) is for every student to learn to listen. To this end, the  Hear the World Foundation equipped the school with FM systems and 28 children received the corresponding hearing aids.

South Africa, 2009 

Prevention is better than cure

A concept in the shape of the “Sound Sense Program” was developed in 2005, in order to create awareness among children at primary schools in Canada of the protection of their hearing and to warn them of the risk of noise-induced hearing loss. For this purpose, the initiators travel through the entire country with the support of the Hear the World Foundation, to ensure that the “iPod generation” can preserve their hearing.

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Canada, 2009 until 2011

Fight against hearing loss

Zambia is one of the poorest countries in the world, which is why the care of people with hearing loss is poor. In collaboration with the Ministry of Health and thanks to the Foundation's support, the Sound Seekers organization improves the Zambia Hark program of hearing test, diagnosis and treatments.

Gambia, 2009 

Perceiving pitch levels better via software

The University of Canterbury has developed a computer-aided training program for perceiving tone pitches. This is intended to serve people with hearing aids or cochlear implants. The Foundation was also involved in the software development.

United Kingdom, 2009 

Inaudible drums

The "Silent Drum" film project receives financial support from the  Hear the World Foundation and wants to transport the audience to a world of silence and African sounds. The film is intended to raise awareness about the situation of children with hearing loss in a developing country.

Kenya, 2009 

Proceeds from pigs

The proceeds from an auction of artfully designed lucky pigs in Zurich (Switzerland) was invested in a development project in Namibia. The money goes to the support group of the "CLaSH" organization, which supports children with hearing loss.

Namibia, 2008 

Reduced hearing at the workplace

Those affected often conceal their hearing loss at the workplace. Researchers at the Université de Montréal & University of Western Ontario investigated the reasons behind this. To enable the study to be initiated they received financial support from the Hear the World Foundation.

Canada, 2008 

Winner of the Richard Seewald Award

The Brazilian organization Sorocaba Association for Hearing Impaired received the first Richard Seewald Award, endowed with USD 20,000, in 2008. It won it for its commitment to research on reduced hearing in children. The organization also offers residents of São Paulo adequate and affordable audiological care.

Brazil, 2008 

Free spirit knows no bounds

Despite suffering from the Usher Syndrome, US American Bill Barkeley knows no bounds. He is realizing his dreams, with the aim of raising awareness for his illness. To this end, the Hear the World Foundation provided the passionate adventurer with special hearing aids and FM systems.

, 2007 

Sonorous music on steel

The Landenhof Project shows that people with reduced hearing can still have musical talent. The school's steel band promotes communal music playing of the children and young people who are hard of hearing. The band received financial support in the form of three new drums.

Switzerland, 2007 

Hearing better, learning better

The Moscow kindergarten of the GOU-Center Doschkolnoe Detstvo was equipped with state-of-the-art hearing and FM systems. Auxiliary aid allows the children with reduced hearing to improve their auditive abilities more rapidly and easily, which benefits their speech development.

 

 

Russia, 2007 

Integrative school model

The advanced teacher training program "Teach for Better Hearing" globally promotes the integration of children with hearing loss in primary schools. The  Hear the World Foundation made a contribution towards the program's financing and the technical equipment.

South Africa, 2007 

Music in the ears as never before

Hearing music for the first time - this happens to most people when they are still babies. For 29 Eritrean children and young people with severe hearing loss, music was the biggest highlight when they received their hearing aids. The  Hear the World Foundation made this possible in collaboration with the SUKE Organization.

Eritrea, 2007 

Do you know a project that would benefit from support from the Hear the World Foundation? Deadline for acceptance is 31 January.

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With the non-profit Hear the World Foundation, Sonova advocates equal opportunities and improved quality of life for people with hearing loss around the world.

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