25 July 2022
Samoa is a remote island in the South Pacific with few resources for hearing impaired children. Attune has long been involved in providing donated pre-loved hearing aids to be used by the volunteer audiologists to assist children with hearing impairments. Attune has also provided resources to the program, and one of our audiologists has worked at the volunteer clinic. You can get involved in this program by donating your old hearing aids and upgrading to a new model at Attune clinics.
· Volunteer audiologists, including Attune staff, have made 24 visits to Samoa on a voluntary basis since 2008 to assess the hearing of children and to fit donated hearing aids. They have also trained local staff to help with this work.
· Before this, local hearing-impaired children had to rely on sign to communicate and their educational opportunities were limited by the lack of amplification.
· An Attune audiologist, Suzi Marcos, has visited Samoa to help with this work a number of times. Attune has also provided IT support, and many pre-loved hearing aids to be fitted to the children.
· The team has fitted more than 240 children with hearing aids and they continue their visits in order to maintain the existing hearing aid fittings and to fit new cases.
· On many occasions, they report that they have seen children’s faces light up as they hear sounds for the first time.
· Attune Hearing Centres have collected pre-loved hearing aids and accessories have sent them to the Attune Hearing centre in Baulkham Hills, where they are collected, checked and sent or taken to Samoa.
· Attune’s IT department has also helped with updating essential software to fit new models of hearing aids.
When upgrading you device, you can donate your old hearing aids to our charity initiative! Book an appointment at your local Attune clinic to discuss your hearing aids with an audiologist.
"*" indicates required fields
