THE Starkey Hearing Foundation is distributing P98-million worth of hearing aids to Dabawenyos as part of the second phase of their Davao City mission.
According to Councilor April Marie Dayap the hearing aids will be distributed to around 1,300 Dabawenyos from November 27 to November 30.
This is the second phase of the program of the US foundation after the first phase or screening was conducted last August 13-15 at Davao City Recreation Center (DCRC) and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) last August 16.
Co-founder of the Starkey Foundation Stanley Austin, during the privilege hour of the 18th Davao City Council on Tuesday, November 28, said that to monitor and maintain the hearing aids, they are providing clients direct access to community-based monitoring.
"It is a community-based model that can be done out in the field and it gives direct access to hearing health care or non-medical issues. We do have medical team, Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat( EENT) doctors here in Davao City that are screening the patients for any medical and counter-indications, but mainly we deal with hearing loss which cannot be helped medically and hearing aid is the only thing that can help," Austin said.
Austin said that apart from Davao, they had also distributed hearing aids in General Santos and Cagayan de Oro cities.
Austin added that her husband, William Austin, has worked for 56 years to bring programs for hearing loss all over the world; they currently have 54 programs scattered all over the world, all of them are in the community level.
"94.4 percent of the workers live in the communities they work in, we believe that it is the only way that a community-based program can work," Austin said.
"We are not just giving a hearing aid, we are giving the other people their feelings back because that's when you hear, you feel, and you can see that," Austin added.