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Gulf Daily News
FUND-RAISERS are hoping to grant the gift of hearing to eight profoundly deaf Bahraini children. It will cost BD80,000 to provide them special devices known as cochlear implants, which sell for approximately BD10,000 each.
The Rotary Club of Adliya is spearheading a campaign to raise the money since the Health Ministry can only offer them to a limited number of patients every year because of the high costs.
There are currently 56 Bahraini children on the ministry's cochlear implant programme waiting list and around 15 new cases are added each year.
By the end of the year, 10 more Bahraini children will have received implants through the programme and the ministry has committed to helping 20 a year for the next two years.
But many of the children will reach the age of five without receiving the implants, which experts say is too late for them to develop speaking skills.
Therefore, the Rotary Club of Adliya is inviting companies and others to help them raise the BD80,000 by sponsoring the Bahrain Golf Invitational (BGI) 2007.
The club has been organising the major annual fund-raising event since 1999 and the next will be held at the Riffa Golf Club on January 12.
Funds raised during BGI 2006 were used to buy eight pieces of Otto Acoustic Emission equipment to detect hearing loss in newborns.
They were donated to the Health Ministry and are being used at maternity hospitals and health centres across the country.
"We are asking sponsors to again Help Us Defeat Child Deafness - this is the logo we are using for the second year running," committee chairman Ali Follad told the GDN.
"We want all previous sponsors to continue their support and be partners in this and we invite new names to come forward."
A cochlear implant is an electronic device that provides individuals with severe-to-profound hearing loss enhanced sound perception and the potential for greater speech understanding.
It is aimed at those who do not benefit from conventional hearing aids because they have tiny hair cells in the inner ear (cochlea) that are damaged or missing.
The cochlear device is surgically implanted in the inner ear and activated by a gadget worn outside the ear. The device carries electronic impulses to the hearing nerve and then to the brain, which are perceived as sounds.
"Hearing is the most vital sense for human communication," Salmaniya Medical Complex senior consultant and ear, nose and throat surgeon Dr Ahmed Jamal told Rotarians at the club's weekly meeting at the Diplomat Radisson SAS Hotel.
"Hearing is the building stone upon which our intricate human communication system is constructed."
Dr Jamal said a child deprived of hearing in their first two to three years of life would never attain their best language function. "Cochlear implantation is the most advanced tool in attacking profound hearing loss," said the Bahrain Society for Cochlear Implantation and Hearing Impairment president and Bahrain Medical Society vice-president. "The problem is the cost."
To sponsor the event, contact Mr Follad on 39637000 or e-mail bgi@rotarybahrain.com
FUND-RAISERS are hoping to grant the gift of hearing to eight profoundly deaf Bahraini children. It will cost BD80,000 to provide them special devices known as cochlear implants, which sell for approximately BD10,000 each.
The Rotary Club of Adliya is spearheading a campaign to raise the money since the Health Ministry can only offer them to a limited number of patients every year because of the high costs.
There are currently 56 Bahraini children on the ministry's cochlear implant programme waiting list and around 15 new cases are added each year.
By the end of the year, 10 more Bahraini children will have received implants through the programme and the ministry has committed to helping 20 a year for the next two years.
But many of the children will reach the age of five without receiving the implants, which experts say is too late for them to develop speaking skills.
Therefore, the Rotary Club of Adliya is inviting companies and others to help them raise the BD80,000 by sponsoring the Bahrain Golf Invitational (BGI) 2007.
The club has been organising the major annual fund-raising event since 1999 and the next will be held at the Riffa Golf Club on January 12.
Funds raised during BGI 2006 were used to buy eight pieces of Otto Acoustic Emission equipment to detect hearing loss in newborns.
They were donated to the Health Ministry and are being used at maternity hospitals and health centres across the country.
"We are asking sponsors to again Help Us Defeat Child Deafness - this is the logo we are using for the second year running," committee chairman Ali Follad told the GDN.
"We want all previous sponsors to continue their support and be partners in this and we invite new names to come forward."
A cochlear implant is an electronic device that provides individuals with severe-to-profound hearing loss enhanced sound perception and the potential for greater speech understanding.
It is aimed at those who do not benefit from conventional hearing aids because they have tiny hair cells in the inner ear (cochlea) that are damaged or missing.
The cochlear device is surgically implanted in the inner ear and activated by a gadget worn outside the ear. The device carries electronic impulses to the hearing nerve and then to the brain, which are perceived as sounds.
"Hearing is the most vital sense for human communication," Salmaniya Medical Complex senior consultant and ear, nose and throat surgeon Dr Ahmed Jamal told Rotarians at the club's weekly meeting at the Diplomat Radisson SAS Hotel.
"Hearing is the building stone upon which our intricate human communication system is constructed."
Dr Jamal said a child deprived of hearing in their first two to three years of life would never attain their best language function. "Cochlear implantation is the most advanced tool in attacking profound hearing loss," said the Bahrain Society for Cochlear Implantation and Hearing Impairment president and Bahrain Medical Society vice-president. "The problem is the cost."
To sponsor the event, contact Mr Follad on 39637000 or e-mail bgi@rotarybahrain.com