In honor of World Hearing Day today, we wanted to call attention to an important hearing health cause: inclusive support for children with disabilities.
It is estimated that 240 million children worldwide have a disability. Unfortunately, in some low-income countries, as few as 3 percent of children with disabilities have access to wheelchairs, hearing aids, glasses and other assistive technologies that they need.
Such accessibility-based care is instrumental in helping children with disabilities fully and equally participate in the world around them.
This is one of many reasons why the UNICEF Children with Disabilities Fund was established—aimed at delivering quality and timely interventions to create sustainable change for children with disabilities across the globe. It’s also why Starkey, a global leader in hearing technology, signed on to become the inaugural partner of the Fund.
The Fund’s drive to create systemic change and ensure that children with disabilities are not left behind is a passion shared by Starkey’s chairman and vice-chair, Bill and Tani Austin, who have dedicated their lives to providing hearing healthcare access to underserved communities and people in need.
Through Starkey Cares, Starkey has impacted millions of lives across the globe by providing hearing healthcare services and hearing aids to underserved populations. Our partnership with UNICEF builds on this legacy by expanding support to broader disability inclusion efforts.
Said Owen Olende, Starkey’s vice president of sales for Africa and Latin America, in a recent Starkey SoundBites interview: “Every single initiative that we're involved in through Starkey Cares is geared towards one goal: So the world may hear, regardless of which part of this world you're in or what your needs are; if you can afford it or cannot afford it; we will provide the care that's needed.
“Because as Mr. Austin says, if you need hearing healthcare, you should be able to get it. It's a basic right.
“So, for us, the partnership with UNICEF through Starkey Cares was a no-brainer.”
Starkey helps UNICEF deliver comprehensive health services
With the goal of empowering children to fully develop and participate in every aspect of society, Starkey is supporting the Fund’s focus on early screening and identification of hearing and vision loss and developmental delays, as well as expanding access to disability support services and assistive technology.
“I think the deep values alignment that we have with Starkey has been inspiring, and I think it gives us a lot of hope for how we go on this journey through the future,” Executive Vice President and Chief Philanthropy Officer of UNICEF USA, Michelle Walsh told Starkey SoundBites.
Olende agreed. “Absolutely, and we're excited at Starkey about our partnership with UNICEF and hope our partnership will scale up so we can make a bigger difference.”
To learn more about Starkey in support of UNICEF, head here.
UNICEF does not endorse any company, brand, organization, product or service.