Promoting Prevention in the Philippines

VIDA volunteer Jo Leane is a Speech Pathologist on assignment with the Cataract Foundation Philippines, Inc.

Are you sometimes guilty of daydreaming at work, staring off into the distance and mindlessly clicking your pen? The Ear Team from the Cataract Foundation Philippines, Inc. (CFPI) do this a lot. They, however, do it for a good reason. Clicking a pen at random intervals while sitting 1 metre behind someone can provide a basic test of whether or not they can hear sounds at a normal volume. Finding dry, hard walls of earwax, food, and a variety of insects in ear canals, are also part of the day's work during school and community screenings. By inspecting ear canals and performing very basic hearing tests the Team aim to detect when a person has a hearing problem (impairment) and try to reduce or eliminate the disabling effects (disability) by providing information, medicine and referral advice.

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