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IDEAL Charity, a UK-based not-for-profit organization, on the occasion of World Hearing Day announced the launch of its initiative and awareness short film “Sunoge to Bologe” in India to promote the importance of early diagnosis of deafness and need for universal newborn hearing screening program coinciding with World Hearing Report released by the World Health Organization on the same day.
There is no universal newborn hearing screening program in India and children show up to the doctors after 4-5 years of age when the golden period of speech development has passed. If deafness is diagnosed very early on in life the child can be treated e.g. by giving hearing aids or cochlear implant, they can start speaking normally.
Dr Narveshwar Sinha, Chairman of IDEAL Charity commented on this initiative, “The film is meant to promote the importance of early diagnosis of deafness. Hence the Charity hopes that the Government of India supports any ingenuity in this direction. We need to somehow get all newborn babies a 2-minutes’ hearing screening test (otoacoustic emission), for example, intervening at the point when the baby is born (if hospital delivery) or at the point of immunisation (if it is out of hospital delivery).”
Dr Sinha was the host and speaker of the event which took place over Zoom. Beside him, the guest speakers consisted of Mrs Gwen Carr (who is behind the world-class UK’s New Born Hearing Screening Program), Professor Martin Marshall, Chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioner, London and Mr Shantanu Moitra, well-known Indian score composer, musician and pianist who has composed lots of popular songs for the Hindi film industry.
Principal Health Secretaries and Directors of National Health Mission of various states and union territories of India were invited to attend the event as they will be the major players in taking this agenda forward in their constituencies.
About the Foundation
IDEAL Charity is a UK-based not-for-profit organization, registered with the Charities Commission of England and Wales. Since 2003, the Charity is involved with advancing the education of deaf persons in less developed countries particularly by provision of education, training, equipment and funding. The Charity concentrates on hearing impairment in young children.
