World Hearing Day 2017

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 3^rd 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.

2^nd 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.

3^rd 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.

4^th 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.