Lend a Ear
Let's end Hearing Inequalities
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According to the World Health Organisation - "It is estimated that by 2050 over 700 million people – or one in every ten people – will have disabling hearing loss." That's 10% of the world population. Lend A Ear is a not for profit that focuses on helping kids and parents of kids with hearing loss lead a life of equality.
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Our Short Term Goal
Our short term goal is to raise funds to ensure every kid who has got a cochlear implant can continue to use their implant in cases of servicing needs of their devices. There are numerous NGOs in India today that fund a Cochlear Implant, but not one that takes care of servicing needs of their devices. On an average, each service on a CI costs in the range of 35,000 INR going upto 1Lakh INR in cases of older devices, not affordable by most of the parents who get CIs for free under Government schemes or via NGOs. Learn more
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Our Long Term Vision
Our long term Vision is to drive awareness in schools and colleges about hearing loss in children so that we live in a world of hearing equality for all. We also would like to create an eco system where a Cochlear Implant is not only for a select few but is easily accessible irrespective of the economic condition of the patient by democratising and reducing costs of CIs in general by funding research in the area
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Who We Are
Our Roots
Here at Lend a Ear, we know that sometimes all it takes to change the world is a little nudge to try something new.
We ourselves are parents to a Cochlear Implantee and know the pain and efforts required to raise funds to enable a bright future for our child. Having gone through the whole 9 yards of knowing about CIs, finding the right team of doctors, spending almost a year to raise funds and then being able to finally get our child implanted, we want to make it easier for someone else going through a similar journey.
Through all of our endeavours we hope to display the conviction behind our beliefs.
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The least we expect from you, is to Lend your ear for the cause if not anything and be the catalyst for change!
Nuances of hearing loss in Children
It's interesting to note that hearing loss in children cannot be looked in isolation and has a direct impact to speech development and cognition. Hence early intervention with technology is needed to enable children lead fulfilling lives
Levels of Hearing Loss
The various levels of hearing loss identified by practitioners are classified into:
Mild - 25 - 40 db, Moderate - 40 - 60 db, Severe - 60 - 80 db, Severe to Profound - 80 - 90 db, Profound - 90 db and above
Typically people with Severe and above levels of hearing loss are ideal candidates for Cochlear Implants. Others can benefit from hearing aids.
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How do we hear
When any sound/ word is produced
-> It first lands in the outer ear
-> Passes through the ear canal
-> Reaches the ear drum
-> This causes hair cells (1500 on each ear) on the cochlea, which is a pea sized snail shaped organ to sway
-> This generates impulses for the auditory nerve
-> The brain processes these signals as sound and responds accordingly
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Typically for a kid born with Sensorineural hearing loss means that the hair cells on the cochlea are either dysfunctional or not present
What's a Cochlear Implant
A hearing aid simply put, focuses on the pure principal of amplification, it picks sounds and amplifies them and sends them to the inner ear. This amplification can help people with mild to moderate hearing loss, anyone with severe to profound hearing loss are candidates for a cochlear implant.
A cochlear implant on the other hand works completely differently, it has 2 parts, an internal implant which is surgically inserted with an incision behind recipients ear and an external processor. The internal implant has an electrode array that is inserted into the cochlea and this replaces the function of the dysfunctional hair cells on the cochlea.
Importance of Early Intervention
"Deaf and hard of hearing people are by no means "silent" at all. They use sign language, lip-reading, vocalisations, and so on to communicate."
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What is really important to understand is, especially for kids with a hearing loss, timing of intervention is very crucial since there is a fixed time (typically upto 30 months of age) where the brain and tongue muscles are elastic in nature and hence early intervention helps a lot, once this golden age passes, the whole journey becomes more difficult and time taking, so act soon!
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A known fact: by the time children reach age five, 90% of a child's brain is already developed.
Resources
List of useful resources to help parents of children with hearing loss
We share more such useful resources and information about hearing loss, its nuances and how you can manage your devices (CIs and hearing aids), finances etc. on Revaan's (our bilaterally implanted son) Instagram handle below
Contact Lend a Ear
Get in touch with Lend a Ear to learn more about our work and how you can get involved.
Hyderabad
Whatsapp @ +91 9885046434
If you're not making someone else's life better, then you're wasting your time. Your life will become better by making other lives better.
Will Smith