CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Starkey Hearing Foundation conducted a hearing program mission in Pampanga where around 200 patients and 30 nurses from district hospitals in the province benefitted from February 19 to 23 this year.
According to Ellaine Dimayuga, Starkey Hearing Foundation Regional Program Manager for Asia Pacific, the program was divided into three phases; phase one was about the identification of patients who were qualified to get hearing aids, phase two was about the hearing mission or the calling of patients through phone to inform them that they are qualified to get hearing aids and the phase three was all about the after care or the monitoring of beneficiaries after receiving the hearing aids.
Dimayuga said that each hearing aid is amounting to P20, 000 to P25, 000.
She added that the foundation started its partnership in the province since 2011 and more than 2, 000 patients already benefitted from the mission.
Dimayuga also stressed that hearing disability is preventable if detected and treated early.
“Hearing loss is a preventable disability, if there are some causes that we can prevent it, we will do that,” she said.
Joseph Barte, Starkey Hearing Foundation Country Coordinator, said that a total of 80 patients in the province were recipients of hearing aids.
Aside from the recipients of hearing aids, 30 nurses and some BHWs were also trained by Starkey about the WFA community-based hearing healthcare program model which they used in doing missions in the country.
Leslie Anne Mahusay
