By Mangala Niyarepola CRT1 / Vice Chairman 2012/2013

Can U Hear me now?

Why Narada Savana Hearing Foundation? CRT 01 Involvement PHASE 1 PHASE 2 Role of RT Austria PHASE 3 - Proposition Have you heard ? Lets spend a moment in Nilupa’s shoes …… truly for a moment! You’re a child born with profound hearing loss (in medical terms “Severely Deaf”) and came to NHFs shelter at the tender age of two, almost a decade ago! Then a miracle happens…! The CRT1 - sings music to your ears in a way that you could hear for the first time in your life by gifting an Audiology & Verbal Therapy Center to NHF, where you were given hearing aids and provided speech therapy for nearly 4 years ……..! Now Nilupa hears her own music by skillfully playing the violin ……. and speaks reasonably well too. A very talented pupil in school and she recently got through her grade 5 scholarship exam. Nilupa still continues to visit NHF three days a week to learn music …… what she likes the most ……. She is hoping to be a musician …….. One day ! By joining hands with “Have You Heard” Project You can help to end the silence - in a big or small way!

 Vision:  To transform every Deaf and hard of hearing child into a hearing and speaking young adult living in dignity, enabling mother Lanka to reap the benefit of all his or her innate talents.  Mission  To facilitate early screening and intervention towards providing speech and language training to hearing impaired children and instill into parents that they are the architects of creating the correct environment for their children’s education

» Main objective of NHF: is to prevent children with impaired hearing growing up untreated due to poverty and ignorance of their parents. » Achievement: Narada Savana (Hear) Foundation, NHF, has so far integrated several rehabilitated deaf children to regular primary schools and is continuing to enroll more kids in order to allow them to join the main stream society without a burden. » What they do there: Once a child’s hearing loss is diagnosed and appropriate hearing aids are made available, the child can be taught to listen, hear and learn the spoken word through the use of techniques such as auditory verbal therapy.

» In almost all countries of the world, this form of training is common and available. Sadly, Sri Lanka is not as fortunate, as the Government’s emphasis was and still is on teaching sign language which is now considered an obsolete method. » Colombo Round Table 1 embarked on this meritorious project to assist the “NHF” under the project theme of ““Have U Heard” - Round table for Kids in Need” with to build a complete audiology center in Gampaha, Sri Lanka. » Since our intervention in 2007, The Narada Savana (Hear) Foundation, NHF, has achieved a tremendous success in achieving their goal of having a fully fledged Audiology Verbal Therapy Center.

Audiology Verbal Therapy Center - has been in operation since December Over 70 children were treated & trained and are schooling in various local national schools with other children.

» The Second stage of the Proposed Audiology Centre construction commenced in December » All the construction work is being closely monitored and payments are being made based on measure and pay basis. Below are some of the ongoing construction work photos of the second stage.

» Round table Austria have been the largest contributor for this project and have donated approximately EURO 43,500 to date to make this dream a reality. » This is the 5 th consecutive year (from 2009) that RT Austria supporting CRT1 in this project.

 The project has won the Round Table International President’s Charity award. Project Chairman; Chandana L. Aluthgama receiving the President’s Award for charity form Rikus Badenhorst Vice President RT International at the Asia Pacific AGM in Goa, also in the picture the Chairman Asia Pacific region Ajay Handa and RTSL President Chamika Godamanna

 The Objective of this phase is to : ◦ Provide children with impaired hearing the support required via providing necessary hearing aid devices, cochlear implants, speech therapy and continuous monitoring so that those children will be able to join the mainstream education.

Hearing Aids ◦ Hearing aids make sound louder but not necessarily clearer ◦ The earlier in life a child is fitted the more effectively he will learn to use hearing ◦ Hearing Aids cost from Rs. 80,000 (Euro 445) Cochlear Implants  A Cochlear implant bypasses damaged hair cells and stimulate the auditory nerve directly  Tremendous controversy surrounds cochlear implants in the deaf community  A cochlear implant costs approx. Rs. 2.5Mn (Euro 14,000) In Sri Lanka

A cochlear Implant to be done at the main government children's hospital in Sri Lanka costs approx. Euros 14,000 i.e. the cost of the entire device to be implanted (excluding other medical costs as done at government hospital) The same operation at a private hospital in Singapore would cost approx Euros 42,135.

 Since majority of the children with no hearing at all require a cochlear implant urgently and others with partial hearing impairments require hearing aids.  This little angel require immediate cochlear implant and short of another Euro 7000 only!

By Joining hands with the CRT 01 “Have U Heard” Project you can help to end the silence! Please visit

We want to express our appreciation for your generosity in support of this project. The commitment from RT Austria was incredibly helpful and allowed us to reach our goal this far. Your assistance means so much to us but even more to Sri Lanka. A BIG THANK YOU FROM ALL OF US AT CRT1 – SRI LANKA