World Wide Hearing Takes Their Mission to the World's Poorest Regions

World Wide Hearing Foundation International, a foundation for less fortunate people with hearing impairment, now plans to bring aid to the poorest regions in the world.

As Kids Health reports, the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders' data says that America alone has 28 million cases of hearing loss or deafness. Daily, 30 million others are exposed to sound levels putting them at risk of being hearing impaired. This data makes up only a part of the hearing impairment problem the world is facing.

"There are over half a billion people with hearing loss, and about half of that hearing loss is disabling," said Audra Renyi, co-founder and executive director of World Wide Hearing Foundation International.

The foundation was founded in Montreal five years ago with the goal of providing assistance to hearing impaired people in underprivileged places, who cannot afford treatment and devices to aid their incapacity, things which are easily accessible to wealthier people in other countries.

The foundation does not only aim to bring hearing aids to those in need, but also provides training to local communities. They came up with the program, "Hearing Express," which provides crash course training for locals, enabling them to conduct hearing tests on patients in order to find out if impairment is temporal or disabling.

World Wide Hearing Foundation International has also made negotiations with hearing aide makers, so that after the training, they can provide locals with very low-priced hearing aids. From its original price range of $2,000 - $3,000, the foundation buys devices at the much lower cost of $100 - $150.

They reach out to poor countries by providing materials and equipping citizens with the tools to combat the problem on their own. But they are not a charity. Materials aren't given away for free; they use a market approach to reach patients as part of their goal.

"We think [charging patients] is important because it generates revenue for the technicians we train. Also, it's a way of ensuring that everyone values what they've received," said Renyi, according to Fast Company.

Deafness may come in different levels and may be caused by various factors. As technology advances, facilities for treating hearing impairment are becoming more and more modernized. Examples are hearing aides, auditory brainstem implants and more, as per The Daily Star.

But what makes it more valuable are the people, such as the ones behind these foundations who make these solutions reachable for the less fortunate.

This video shows more of what the foundation has to offer.