World Hearing Day
Hearing loss is a major public
health issue. It may affect everyone differently depending on age, suddenness
of onset and a variety of other factors like life situations. Especially more
and more young people are experiencing hearing problem. This is usually caused
by exposure to loud sounds, noise at work or leisure activities and lack of ear
care. Looking at the magnitude of hearing issue, World Health Organisation (WHO)
declared 3rd March as the World Hearing Day in its International
Conference on Prevention and Rehabilitation of Hearing Impairment in Beijing,
China in 2007.
Like every year, Anwesha Kolkata celebrated the “World
Hearing Day” on 3rd March 2017 in
order to raise awareness “Ear
care and Prevention of hearing Loss” across the city. To mark the programme successful,
we conducted the following activities.
2nd March, Thursday, 2017: Anwesha Kolkata and Susruti Hearing & Speech Centre jointly
organized a hearing screening camp at Baghajatin (Ward no. 102). There were
good response and 42 people from the locality including children and
adults participated. Dr. Shaswati
Sengupta Datta - a renowned ENT specialist from Narayana Super Speciality
Hospital visited our camp and saw the patients with care.
Everyone was registered at
entering the camp, handed a token individually, sent for an audiometry test,
met the ENT specialist in the adjacent room along with the report, counselling
was done case by case and above all, the whole procedure was free of charge. We
got tremendous support from Ms. Rinku
Naskar, Honb’le Councillor of Ward No. 102 and the members of People’s Relief Committee (W.B).
Without their support, the camp could not be organized smoothly.
3rd March, Friday, 2017: There
is a popular adage “Morning shows the
day” and keeping with that sync, Anwesha Kolkata received a motivational
letter from Shri Sovan Chatterjee, Mayor - Kolkata Municipal Corporation &
MIC, Fire & Emergency Services, Housing and Environment, Govt. of W.B encouraging
celebration of World Hearing Day in a
unique style "Educate the public
through Tableau and Awareness Rally".
The Kolkata Traffic Police joined hands in extending
support to the campaign by providing a tableau for creating awareness among the
public on ear care and hearing health. The Anwesha Kolkata team along with
hearing disabled youngsters took part in the campaign to educate the public
through interactive question & answer session and giving out token gifts to
participants, meeting hearing health related queries and distributing leaflets
on Ear Care. We moved through various important junctions such as Esplanade,
Moulali, Sealdah, Mallick Bazar, Exide Crossing, Hazra Crossing, Rashbehari,
Deshapriya Park, Gariahat, Jadavpur 8B Bus Stop and Garia Crossing.
On the same day, an awareness
rally was also taken out from Deshapriya Park to Gariahat Crossing to raise
awareness on hearing health. The rally was flagged off at 4.30 PM by Shri V.Solomon Nesakumar, Dy.
Commissioner of Police (Traffic) and Shri Soumitra
Ray, a renowned singer. The rally was joined by personalities like Mr. Agindev Chatterjee, noted Film
Director, Kolkata CID famed Actor Aatish
Bhattacharya, Dr. Shiv Krishna Mitra
from Apollo Hospital and others also actively participated in the rally.
Members from Deaf Child Worldwide
(DCW), MENTAID, SVH, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), SANCHAR AROD, Manovikas
Kendra, Silence, Association of Women With Disabilities (AWWD), Women's
Christian College, Muralidhar Girls College came forward to make the rally
successful. There were around 250 people that took part in the rally. It was
culminated with a human chain at Gariahat Crossing and a brief programme on ear
care and good practices to protect hearing. All participants were given water
and refreshments. The entire rally was well supported by B. K. Roy Foundation and Peerless
Hospital.
4th March, Friday, 2017: On the
very next day, another hearing screening camp was jointly organized by Anwesha
Kolkata with Peerless Hospital as Health Partner at Kendua Shanti Sangha, Patuli, Kolkata. 52 people including children
participated in the camp and availed of the facilities free of costs like ear
test, hearing check up, screening, audiometry etc throughout the day. Mr. Bappaditya Dasgupta, Hon’ble Local
Councillor of ward no 101 extended all support to make the camp successful.
Members of Anwesha Kolkata were
happy to have made the efforts to create awareness on ear care and hearing
health on the occasion of World Hearing Day and hope to create greater
awareness in subsequent years.
