The Sunday Mail
Theseus Shambare in MUREWA
Government, in partnership with WizEar, a private voluntary organisation that deals with hearing health, has encouraged parents and guardians to take their children for hearing screening during early childhood.
This is in line with the Government’s Disability Policy, which seeks to empower persons with disability at all ages.
Speaking during the official launch of the four-day outreach programme to offer free hearing health services at St Paul’s Musami Mission School in Murewa on Thursday, the director of disability affairs in the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Dr Christine Peta, said parents should start considering the hearing health of their children as a priority.
“Parents often do not take screening for hearing impairment seriously.”
“When a child seems to struggle to hear, most parents usually beat the child thinking that they are pretending not to hear in order to avoid being assigned to do house chores. This is the perception we want to be changed within parents and guardians,” said Dr Peta.
Parents, she said, need to visit specialists whenever they realise their child has some hearing challenges.
“Associating disability with evil spirits and witchcraft moves us backwards in relation with the national disability agenda. All children, including those with disabilities, have a right to have access to education.”
WizEar programmes director Mrs Lucia Nkomo said they are working closely with the Government in promoting awareness on ear health, while also assisting disadvantaged communities that have children with hearing impairment.
“We really appreciate the support we are getting from the Government to achieve our goal, which is to ensure that we reach out to the vulnerable communities and provide them free hearing health services.
“But before rendering any assistance, we start by educating the people about hearing health. We realised that our communities were still stuck to the old culture of hiding children with hearing impairment, but we are encouraging parents to come forward to let their children get assistance earlier so that they are not left behind, as our President is always saying,” said Mrs Nkomo.
“We are looking forward to Government coming up with a policy that mandates every child who is going into early childhood development school (ECD) to be screened for hearing first. We want children to benefit from basic primary level education,” she said.
Research done by WizEar Trust in Zimbabwe shows that 80 percent of poor education results revolve around hearing loss.
“We want the Government to consider that sign language be taught in all schools. Apart from interacting at school, sign language will facilitate communication with deaf people in the community.”
Dr Tinashe Nhokwara, an audiologist, said challenges that contribute to hearing loss include use of electronic gadgets like ear phones and high loud music at events.
Late detection of hearing loss, she said, remains the major challenge.
“We encourage parents to be alert to their children’s hearing capacity. Seek help at available facilities such as Harare Central Hospital (now Sally Mugabe Central Hospital) and other private sector hospitals,” she said.
During the four days, the Department of Disability Affairs and WizEar will be hosting all specialists for hearing health as they offer free services to learners with hearing impairment.
Learners from St Paul’s Musami primary and high schools will get free screening and those found with hearing impairments will get necessary help, including free hearing aids.
Among the specialists are ear, nose and throat (ENT) doctors, general practitioners(GP), ENT nurses, audiologists and ENT technicians.
Twitter @TheseusShambare
