Thanks to a handful of U students, a school for deaf children in Kenya will now have access to hearing aids run by solar powered, rechargeable batteries.
The hearing aids are unique because they never require new batteries, something organizers said many children in Kenya could not afford.
“They look just like any other hearing aid,” said Lisa Hunter, a professor of communication science and disorders who will lead the group.
U students will deliver the hearing aids on July 19 as part of the YouthLINC program, a non-profit organization that sends college and high school students to help children in schools around the world.
The group, who will be working at the Kaaga School for the Deaf, includes two doctoral students in audiology, two speech language students, one deaf education student and several students from the LEAP program.
The school is located in the city of Meru, with a population 100,000. The city is located about four hours north of Nairobi in a mountainous region.
Besides supplying the school with hearing aids, the students will lecture children about dental hygiene, AIDS prevention and family planning for older children. They will also teach languages, including English, Swahili, Kenyan Sign Language and their tribal language, Kimeru.
The group will work with 170 children, including 35 orphans.
Sarah Law, a senior majoring in special education, said each student going on the trip must complete 100 hours of service and fund raising before leaving for Kenya.
“It seems like I’m doing something almost every week,” Law said.
The trip will be Hunter’s second time visiting Kenya with YouthLINC. Working with the Kenyan children was an eye-opening experience, she said.
“I feel that the most important thing that can help children there, especially in terms of preventing deafness, would be trying to do something about the rate of infectious diseases,” Hunter said. “They have 10 times the rate of hearing loss in children as we have and most of those are from preventable causes.”
Law hopes the trip will leave a mark on both her life and the lives of the children.
“I think it will be an extremely life-changing event,” she said.