IT’S A FAMILY AFFAIR

Robert Davies and his 26 year old nephew, Justin, are jetting of to a remote part of Kenya to visit a school for the deaf and help fit children with hearing aids donated to the mission.

Hearing aid audiologist Robert, managing director of Seaford and Sevenoaks Hearing Centres, has visited the Reverend Muhoro School for the Deaf which teaches almost 200 pupils aged 16 to 22 years. Robert first visited in 2004 after attending a charity ball at Wilton house in Wiltshire in 2003 and hearing about the plight of the school, after which he pledged an audiometer.

For his fourth visit Robert will be joined by nephew Justin who has given up his job in marketing with a major pharmaceutical company to spend six months in Kenya working at the school.

Robert explains, “A trip to Kenya is always special but this is more so as I’ll be introducing Justin to the staff and students at the school. I visited the school in July this year to take ear moulds of some of the children so I can return and fit them with hearing aids.

“One of my supplier’s is hearing aid manufacturer Starkey Laboratories who has kindly donated more than 40 hearing aids and has been busy making the custom fit ear pieces for each of the children.

“This part of the process is the best as the children are fitted with their hearing aids and hear the things they don’t normally such as birds, animals – and each other. The aids significantly improve their speech and communication skills and therefore their ability to learn.

“As well as testing hearing, fitting the aids, we also teach members of staff how to use the diagnostic equipment.”
Seaford and Sevenoaks are proud to be associated with the school and see this as an ongoing commitment.

Managing director of Starkey Laboratories Roger Lewin comments, “The work Robert is doing is fantastic and we are keen to give him all the help and support we can. He has to spend 10 hours on a plane and then brave a lengthy drive over almost impassable roads to the slopes of Mount Kenya.”

The Reverend Muhoro School for the Deaf has a mix of deaf and profoundly deaf children from Kenya and also Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda.

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