GUYANA’S First Lady Sandra Granger last Thursday held discussions with a representative of the Guyana Foundation, a team from Starkey Hearing Foundation and a representative from the Ministry of Health on strategies for the implementation of Starkey Hearing Foundation’s Community-based Hearing Healthcare programme here. The programme will target hearing-impaired patients in need. Starkey Hearing Foundation is a leading Global Hearing healthcare organization.

Anthony Autar, Managing Director of the Guyana Foundation; Derek T. Johnson, International Mission Liaison; Julia Lis, International Mission Liaison Contractor; Dr. Luqman Lawal, Manager: Research, Monitoring and Evaluation, all of the Starkey Hearing Foundation, and Dr Ruth Quaicoe, Head of Audiology in Guyana, based at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), met with the First Lady at her State House office.

During the meeting, the First Lady said her participation in the programme was linked to her being patron of the Guyana Foundation. According to a press statement, Mrs. Granger said she “is very happy to work with bonafide organisations that are going to help the people of Guyana.”
While this is her first meeting with representatives of the Foundation, Mrs. Granger first met Co-Founder of Starkey Hearing Foundation, Tani Austin at the First Ladies Summit, during the 70th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in 2 New York, USA, last year, who had indicated an interest in bringing the programme to Guyana.

“Starkey Foundation’s programme provides hearing health and they are working with the Ministry of Health and other organisations to provide the gift of hearing to persons with hearing impairment particularly our children and senior citizens,” Mrs. Granger said.
Meanwhile, Autar said that the Guyana Foundation, together with its partners, plans to implement the first phase of Starkey’s four-part programme this year.

The four phases of the programme of Starkey Hearing Foundation include: Phase 1- Patient identification, which involves conduction of community outreach to identify potential patients and provide primary ear care services and hearing screenings to identify potential hearing device candidates; Phase 2- a Hearing mission, where the hearing aids with custom earmolds and batteries are provided for beneficiaries; Phase 3- an AfterCare programme, where these recipients benefit from services such as repair and replacement of the hearing devices, batteries provision and additional counseling.

The last Phase, Phase 4 is the ultimate goal of the 3 previous phases. It focuses on mainstreaming hearing aid beneficiaries back into life; supporting them in participating schools while implementing speech and language training for students who have progressed to the level of their hearing peers with the overall goal of helping them to connect with their communities. Additionally, this phase also enables hearing aids recipients connect with their families and the society at large.

These Phases are pieces of jigsaw puzzles that culminate in improvement in quality of life of patients. In an invited comment Dr. Luqman Lawal, Starkey Hearing Foundation’s Manager: Research, Monitoring and Evaluation, said that the Foundation came to Guyana to establish local partnerships for a community-based hearing healthcare program enabling the Foundation to create a local presence once the program commences.
The long-term wish of the Foundation is to help hearing-impaired people that can benefit from a hearing aid but cannot afford a hearing aid in Guyana. The local presence will involve working with local partners to ensure sustainability of the programme.