By Joseph Kabia
The sun does not set in Starkey Hearing Foundation. With missions in seven regions of the world, and hearing loss affecting 360 million people, including 32 million children, Mr. Bill Austin, the founder of Starkey Hearing Foundation and his team of international volunteers do not sleep a wink. This is in the face of the devastating global hearing loss data and the burden on patient’s physical function and quality of life.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are trying to do our best till the last patient. Sometimes it takes a bit longer. But together we can change the world.” These were the words of Mr. Bill Austin, at the grounds of the Lions Primary school in Kisumu, early this year, when he launched a marathon mission to feed hearing aids to 1400 people that included children and adults with hearing loss in Eldoret and Lokichogio in Kenya for free.
A group of international and local volunteers applauded to the spirit of a man who is ranked among the class of six comas yet he maintains with humility, that wealth is an evil master that cannot be personified with God. It is the lifelong passion of a born philanthropist that believes “love is the thing that you can give away and not reduce your shares, in fact it grows,” he says.
Born in Oregon, USA, in 1942, Bill Austin gave up his plans to attend medical school and purchased Starkey Laboratories, after closing a hearing aid repair shop that he had opened in 1967 in St. Louis Park Minnesota, to transform the new company into “one of the worlds’ largest hearing aid companies, Starkey Hearing Technologies”.
It is from this investment that Starkey Hearing Foundation receives a cut of every product that the company sells that has enabled the charity to donate “some one million hearing aids around the world.” Mr. Austin who still maintains his dispensing license and personally fits the hearing aids, has let others to take care of his business, allowing him to work full time in the organisation which provides more than 100,000 free hearing aids a year to people in need in the US and around the world.
“Individuals do not have to live in a world of silence. They should not live in isolation. Hearing loss has potentially devastating consequences for a person’s physical and mental health, education, and employment. It impedes cognitive growth, social integration and quality of life,” he said. “The hope and hearing that comes with a hearing device empowers young and old to achieve their human potential.
Giving a person the ability to hear has an immediate inspiring impact on a person’s quality of life and a compounding effect on the world,” said Tani Austin, a co-founder of the organisation. “There could be peace and understanding in the world if we would hear each other. Every single person has a chance to be a game changer.
And it’s never too late to hear again or for the first time,” she said as she introduced her organisation’s work in Kisumu. She said that her organization has developed “51 Sustainable Community-Based Hearing Healthcare Programs worldwide, with 94.4 per cent of the workers living in the local community.” In her organizations’ mission approach of “think global, act local,” she said that they have been able to train and empower local workers on the community based hearing healthcare program and provided them with skills and resources to become hearing healthcare coordinators to help those in their community who have hearing loss.
“At the community level, we empower local communities to deliver local hearing healthcare services thus providing greater access to care. At the district level, we support the community with additional resources in healthcare and education through trainings and external monitoring. And at the national level we partner with governments to build systematic foundations that influence national policies and build national ear and healthcare plans,” said Tani Austin.
She confided that the organisation has now opened “the first Starkey Hearing Institute” in Lusaka Zambia, as plans are high to establish another one in Ghana, while Kenya will be a regional hearing training center. The four phase community based hearing healthcare model is a simplified and practical operation strategy that starts with patient identification and screening. This leads to the second phase called “the hearing mission” where patients are fitted with hearing devices and custom ear molds.
In phase three of the community based hearing healthcare model called “after care services,” patients are given monthly aftercare services like counseling, batteries to run the hearing devices, and free services to repair or replace hearing aids when need arises.
The phase four of the model called “mainstream opportunities” includes provision of self-empowerment tools for patients to become self-determinant. This is the stage where the organisation employs speech-language pathologists who visit schools and provide additional care.
“The ultimate goal of our model is to empower people so they can become self- determinant, provide for their families, and be able to share their ideas and feelings.
By helping people out of isolation of silent world, we aim to inspire those who receive the gift of hearing to become more active members of society, and to reflect caring within their communities to create a positive effect on the future of our world,” said Tani Austin.
Hello. How are you been today. I am ANTHONY MUNENE WANJIKU. I am a deaf person from kibera -makina Ground DC near me home. I has hearing aid👂 . But l want need hearing aid 👂 use this (battery 🔋). Where is the place Office .