Poor kids get to hear loud & clear now

Hyderabad: Sanya Tabussum, studying in Class 5, always had a problem with her left ear and would strain to her what her friends were saying. Then this happened. During one of the community ear health camps conducted by Ashray-Akruti in the month of July at Government Primary School, Yousufguda, she was provided with a hearing aid. Now, Sanya can hear with ease.

Ashray-Akruti, an NGO established by D P Babu in 1996 with a vision to provide a life of dignity to people with disabilities, has been conducting ear and eye camps and helping cure the disabilities, particularly, of underprivileged people. They also aim to develop trained professionals and human resources for the disability sector.

Till date more than 250 hearing-impaired children have been integrated into mainstream school, college and universities. Babu said, "From providing special education to the hearing impaired children, we have now diversified into other areas in health, education and vocational training to address the needs of people with disability and marginalised sections of the society."

More than 51 youths have been trained and placed in Multimedia and animation, 10,500 plus school children are screened at ear care campus and more than 7,500 new-born babies have been screened.

"We were more worried about her education. We did not know where to go and who to approach" said U Nodsheen while she was talking about her worries about U Arshiya. They heard about Ashray-Akruti from the Government ENT Hospital and enrolled her in the PP class.

At Ashray-Akruti, Arshiya got special education along with auditory training and speech therapy. "It was her third year in Ashray-Akruti School, Yakatpura Branch, now she can understand words and can speak few words. I am very happy to see the difference in her," said Nodsheen