Following a competitive selection process, we are pleased to announce support for two new project partners and the renewal of three existing collaborations, with each chosen for their clear commitment to impacting access to hearing care for children.
We’re excited to welcome our newest partners, the Laboratory of Technological Innovation in Health in Brazil and Christian Blind Mission in Zambia. In addition, we’re proud to continue our support for FUSNINPE in El Salvador, ABA in Brazil, and WizEar in Zimbabwe. With these expanded partnerships, HTWF is supporting 14 projects across 12 countries in APAC, Africa, Middle-East and LATAM.
New projects
Laboratory of Technological Innovation in Health (LAIS) / Brazil: LAIS is hosted in the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, a public institution located in the northeast of Brazil. LAIS’s purpose is to promote technological innovation in health, improve public policies, and offer advice and training to teams of healthcare services by scientific evidence. The project aims to expand capacity building efforts using an existing framework from our current project partner (ABA). Additionally, LAIS aims to build up pediatric audiology services in three rehabilitation centers.
Christian Blind Mission (CBM) / Zambia : CBM is partnering with Beit Cure Hospital (BCH) Lusaka to implement the project through their ENT and audiology unit, also co-funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation (BMZ). The project, which builds on an initiative started in 2018, aims to enhance the quality of life for children with hearing loss by improving access to EHC services within the primary healthcare system. The project targets the pediatric population ages 6 months to 18 years old across Central, Eastern, Luapula, Lusaka, Muchinga, Northern and Southern Provinces of Zambia.
Renewed support
Academia Brasileira de Audiologia (ABA) / Brazil: ABA is a non-profit civil society formed in 2001 by professors and researchers, bound to four universities in São Paulo. ABA’s activities include strengthening national audiology, promoting continuous education, advancing policies, and supporting research. As a result of its first grant with HTWF in 2022, the project provided hands-on advanced clinical training to 783 hearing care professionals audiologists and fitted 255 children with hearing aids. ABA aims to expand the capacity building program by including a fifth university center located in the northeast of Brazil, elevate the practical training initiative by incorporating telehealth, and bridge the gap between the actual need of underprivileged children and the oftentimes delayed public state care. With both LAIS and ABA located in Brazil, the two projects will work together to strengthen capacity development and broaden the reach of hearing healthcare across the country.
Fundación Su Niño No Puede Esperar (FUSNINPE) / El Salvador: FUSNINPE is a non-profit organization established in 2007, with the aim to provide hearing care services for underprivileged children with hearing loss, as well as educational support for their families. As a result of the support from HTWF since 2020, FUSNINPE started providing routine audiological services and expanding beneficiary reach. FUSNINPE aims to further expand clinical services and work with three hospitals to implement newborn hearing screening programs.
WizEar / Zimbabwe: WizEar is a non-profit organization founded in 2008 by two medical doctors. The organization focuses on ear and hearing services and complements the work of the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care (MOHCC) and the Ministry of Labor and Social Services. Since HTWF started supporting WizEar in 2023, 826 children have been fit with hearing technology and 369 professionals have been trained. WizEar will expand its audiological services to 6 more hospital networks, in additional to the 14 already served, and train up 972 professionals to further advocate for universal access to quality ear and hearing care services in all communities.