Campaign to Promote Hearing Healthcare in Liberia through Church Aid Incorporated has marked 1st Observance of World Hearing Day, as proclaimed by the World Health Organization with the participation of several schools, teachers, and stakeholders.
:-The celebration began with a parade from Bible College Community in Brewerville, Montserrado County, bringing together students, nurses, members of Church Aid Inc., and community dwellers, amongst others
Speaking at the indoor program on March 5, 2024, in Brewerville, keynote speaker, Dr. Tabeh L. Freeman, Jr., the only practicing ENT Surgeon in Liberia, called on Liberians to promote ear and hearing care in the country.
Dr. Freeman said such campaign needs the collective effort of all, including members of the 55th Legislature to promote ear and hearing health.
According to him, individuals with hearing complications should always seek doctors' advice, instead of self-medicating that could further worsen their conditions.
Also speaking, a representative of the Clinton Health Access Initiative extolled the campaign and promised to collaborate with the Ministry of Health to take the campaign to all fifteen political sub-divisions of Liberia.
Bishop Kortu K. Brown, who leads the campaign here, recalled that the exercise began with training of four (4) specialists last year in Lusaka, Zambia in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and other partners, and challenged Liberians and stakeholders to engage efforts to promote hearing healthcare in the country.
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Bishop Brown revealed that Starkey Hearing Foundation has donated several Hearing Aids and about eighteen thousand (18,000) batteries to power the device, to Church Aid INC.
According to him, the hearing aids will be given to people who have hearing problems based on advice of nurses to help improve their sense of hearing.
At the celebration recently, a representative of the City Corporation of Brewerville praised the efforts of Church Aid, which was described as remarkable, and called on relevant stakeholders to support the campaign.
The Church Aid had trained about twenty (20) specialists to be placed in major health facilities across the country to help address hearing loss.
Over 200 students participated in the program, while about eighteen (81) persons were screened and tested for hearing loss. So far, the team has referred more than two hundred (200) persons for hearing aids in the past six (6), weeks since the return of trained and specialized nurses. Editing by Jonathan Browne