Rietumu Bank’s Charity Fund completed the project “Let the Music Be Heard!” aimed to support children with hearing impairments and to attract social attention to this problem. Latvian Radio and television in cooperation with the Centre For Hearing Impaired Children of Latvia also supported the project organised by the Latvian radio broadcaster Ilona Yahimovich.
During the project lifetime, all volunteers could donate to help hearing impaired children from poor Latvian families by purchasing modern earphones, which will allow these children to live and develop to their utmost potential.
Latvian Radio also hosted a charity concert, where a number of well-known musicians, e.g. Intars Busulis, “Melo-M” band, Ilona Bagele, Serge Egers, and newcomers took part.
As a result, 7 multichannel earphones have been purchased for children, who had waited for these vital devices for a long time. The price of one earphone accounts for LVL 1100.
At the end of last week the earphone devices were handled to the children during a festive ceremony in Riga Puppet Theatre. After the ceremony everyone attended an outstanding theatre performance.
Nowadays there are 30 000 people with hearing impairments, whereas 2000 are completely deaf. Around 150 new cases of children hearing impairments are registered every year. From 1 to 4 babies out of every 1000 suffer from inborn hearing loss. Reasons vary – from birth traumas to hereditary deviations.
Earphone devices subsidised by the Government are not qualitative enough to help people to distinguish between noises and human speech, while more modern ones are fully functional. The modern earphones help children to hear every sound clearly, to develop their communication skills and to become valuable members of society. Eleonora Gailisha Mass Media and Public Relations
Phone: +371-67020506
Fax: +371-67020563
E-mail:
egailisha@rietumu.lv
