Busi is a bright girl, but hasn't been able to acquire any language skills due to her hearing loss. She has been labelled as “retarded” by her peers and those living in her community for all these years.

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Busi's problem picked up
Busi's hearing problem was first picked up by the Carel du Toit Community Hearing Outreach (CHOP) team.

The Carel du Toit Centre in Gauteng is the first satellite of the Carel du Toit Centre in Tygerberg, which was established in Cape Town over three decades ago.

The Gauteng Centre has been involved in the CHOP project for the past two years, thanks to the financial assistance of the De Beers Fund.

CHOP started in Cullinan and this year moved to Refilwe. The team screens babies' hearing during their routine visits to the immunisation clinic and assesses general ear health. This service has not been available to this community until now.

Busi’s mother brought her baby son to the clinic. However, during the visit, an audiologist took note of Busi and expressed concern. Busi failed the screening tests. Consequently, the child was referred to the University of Pretoria for further tests.

The tests confirmed that Busi had a steep sloping bilateral sensory neural hearing loss. It was recommended that she should receive digital hearing aids with one or more frequency channels. But this would have cost approximately R13 100.

Donation makes a difference
Fortunately Widex, one of the leading hearing aid suppliers in this country, made a generous donation in the form of the appropriate hearing aids.

"When we at Widex became aware of this opportunity to help Busi, we wanted to respond. Widex has worked with Carel du Toit Centre in Cape Town for a number of years," says PK Nagin, Widex General Manager.

Last September, Widex donated hearing aids to eight disadvantaged children.

The company has an ongoing campaign to help the public overcome their lack of confidence to deal with hearing loss. About 10% of the population has this condition.

"People shy away from admitting to hearing loss and it takes up to seven years before they do something about it. For children, hearing loss means a loss of language skills, communication skills and the opportunity to interact with the world. That is why we at Widex invest more in helping people overcome hearing loss," Nagin says.

Some of Widex's projects include:

• A sponsored online Hearing Centre on Health24. The idea is to encourage people to feel more comfortable about coming forward in order to manage their hearing loss.
• Recently, Widex in Denmark developed and produced a comprehensive guide for parents on hearing and hearing loss, entitled "Your child's hearing". You can get a copy by contacting the numbers below.
• Every year, Widex also provides research funding on managing hearing loss in South Africa. The sponsorship is open to all under- and post-graduate students studying towards a hearing-service professional qualification. The research sheds light on the latest socio-cultural and psychological factors that shape South African attitudes with regards to hearing loss.

For more information, contact Carina Visser, consulting audiologist, or PK Nagin, Widex General Manager, on 0860 326 061. – (Health24)

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