Nine year old Rehan and Eleven year old Irfan were not able to hear since birth. In the beginning years, their parents too were unable to understand that they have hearing disability. After some years when they had turned 5 Years old their parents took them to ENT Specialist.
It took about 3-4 more years for the doctor and parents to discuss about Rehan and Irfan’s hearing disability and that they should undergo a Cochlear Implant.
In India people are not well aware about hearing disability, its causes and cure. Hence, there has been an increase in the number of people who have hearing disability.
Senior Citizens too face many problems related to Cataract, Knees etc. One out of Four Senior Citizens have hearing disability. We have made available hearing machine of Rs. 10,000 in just Rs. 500. It is an initiative undertaken by our party (BJP) and Yuvak Pratishthan under the name (‘ऐका स्वाभिमानाने). Till now thousands of people have been benefited by this.
The hearing machines for children who are born with hearing disability are too expensive. Children who have 90% hearing disability are required to use hearing machine for both the ears and it costs around 2-4 lakhs.
We have started a new initiative under the name (मलाही ऐकायचं आहे) through which we are trying to provide hearing machines of the best quality for children. In this regard, we had a discussion with the CEO of the world’s top most company that produces hearing machines. Star Company and Yuvak Pratishthan decided to help those children and make these machines available to them at a cheapest rate.
It is our attempt to brighten the future of the child by giving a machine of Two to Four lakhs to the children/parents at Five to Twenty Five Thousand (nominal contributions of parents). Donors are helping with these project "I want to hear it".
Papu Khan, a resident of Kurla had gone to renew Handicap Certificates of his sons Rehan and Irfan to the J. J. Hospital. There he saw our poster starting help for Senior Citizens. He immediately contacted us if we could be of some help to him. On 10 August 2019, he brought the children to our office. We got to know about his sons’ disability to hear.
We informed him that we provide hearing aids for senior citizens and not for children. He told us that they had got a machine from ‘Ali Yavar Jung institute' but it was of no use as it didn’t aid them.
Application of Pappu Khan
Shri. Papu Khan along with his wife and children had come to visit me. Looking at their plight, everybody present there was in tears. Irfan could understand what people were saying, as he knew how to lip-read. He tried to speak after trying to understand, Rehan too is trying to learn to lip-read.
After getting to know about their severe condition, we decided to help them. We, along with star key company and Yuvak Pratishthan decided to give them/provide them with hearing aids.
Letter to Shri Rohit Mishra, CEO Star Key
Hence, we took their audiogram to know about the severity of their disability.
Irfan's Audiogram
Rehan's Audiogram
We discovered that they had 90% hearing disability; hence, we need to provide them with the top quality hearing aids. That is why, we approached many people to help us in this initiative. 'Being Human' donated Rs. 40,000 to us, some of the money was given by Papu Khan himself and some of it by the 'Yuvak Pratishthan'.
On 18th of September, 2019 they were handed over the Hearing Aids after all the checkup and tests. They used those Hearing Aids under the supervision of an ENT specialist for 10 days.
Since, last two yeas, we have been helping children with hearing disability.
We were delighted to see hapiness on their parents face and they were filled with gratitude, so were we, after helping them. Along with this, we have also continued to help senior citizens with hearing disability.
Summary:
- The fact that people who visit J. J. Hospital come for help to us makes us over joyed and shows their confidence as well as trust they have on us.
- It is an achievement for us because we have been helping people and trying to bring about a difference in their lives with the support of star key company's CEO Mr. Rohit Mishra. It fills us with satisfaction and delight.
- We help these people so that they are confident about themselves. their smiles fill us with atmost happiness
- So, we are extremely grateful, that we are getting these wonderful opportunities thereby we can help people and make them love their existence and feel confident about themselves.
Looking at the positive response and happiness these people feel, we have become all the more determined about helping needy people with various disabilities.
Kirit Somaiya along with Rehan and Irfan