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Deaf Awareness & Recycling of Hearing Equipment
Deaf Awareness
Contact details
| Name: | Penny Tregillus |
| Email: | pennytregillus@lionsclubs.co.uk |
| Audiologist: | Dr Michael Nolan, Audiological Consultant volunteers on the Lions Clubs Hearing Aid recycling programme. Email: widdler2onthehoof@yahoo.co.uk |
Key information
In the UK, one in six people is affected by hearing loss. Deafness is the country’s second-largest disability. The World Health Organization estimates that by 2050 over 900 million people globally will experience disabling hearing loss. Here’s how Lions Clubs throughout the British Isles can get involved:
Lions Hearing Forum
The Lions Hearing Forum, launched in 2014, is a Multiple District (MD105) project helping Lions Clubs and members of the public to become more aware of the challenges presented by deafness and hearing impairment, and how these can be addressed.
Deaf awareness training sessions, run by Lions members, can be organised in local communities.
Collect used hearing equipment
Lions Clubs are invited to collect unwanted, or broken, analogue and digital hearing aids and audiological equipment from individuals, audiologists, hearing retail outlets, and hospitals. Since May 2015, Lions have collected almost 90,000 hearing aids and ancillary items.
Dr Michael Nolan formerly of the Starkey Hearing Foundation receives donations for sorting and refurbishment. Adults and children with hearing impairment whose lives have been transformed after receiving recycled hearing equipment live in countries including: Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Senegal, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Lesotho, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zanzibar, Madagascar, Ukraine, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, China, Philippines and Papua New Guinea.
How to donate used hearing equipment
You can send a small number of hearing aids – do not include boxes or batteries – by post, to: Dr Michael Nolan, Lumb Gaps Barn, Haslingden Old Road, Rawtenstall, Rossendale, Lancashire BB4 8TT.
To send larger volumes of hearing aids (up to 15kg), can be despatched using Evri, see: https://www.evri.com/
Alternatively hearing aids and equipment can be included with donations of used spectacles being sent to Chichester Lions Club for forwarding to Dr Michael Nolan.
Link to article on Lions Spectacles Recycling programme
“Thank you for your donations. A story from Sri Lanka let me know of a local Tuk Tuk taxi driver who had given up his work owing to difficulties hearing instructions from his passengers. Thanks to a donated hearing aid, he is now back at work and able to support his wife and children. Without Lions help, the family’s future would have been very bleak.” Dr Michael Nolan, Audiological Consultant