The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Making a sound impression

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 19, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Making a sound impression

Staff Reporter

MATCHING HER SKILLS: Television anchor Jhansi with children who were given cochlear implants by SAHI at Apollo Hospital in Banjara Hills on Sunday.

HYDERABAD: Even the most powerful hearing aid or some of the State's best ENT specialists could not help four-year-old Poojitha who was born with profound hearing impairment. That was a year ago.

On Sunday, Poojitha along with seven-year-old Sai Chandran and three-year-old Spurgeon Raj were among 50 children, all born hearing impaired, who gathered at Apollo Hospitals lawns to honour the Cochlear Implant team of the Society to Aid the Hearing Impaired (SAHI) that brought the music of sound into their lives.

SAHI and its team — chief ENT surgeon E.C. Vinay Kumar, ENT surgeons Ram Babu, Jaswinder Singh and Satavahana Chowdhary and audiologist Srinivas, among others — had gone knocking door to door, literally, to mop up funds to help the children in the surgeries, each costing from Rs.5 lakhs to Rs.10 lakhs.

As SAHI got together to celebrate 50 such surgeries on Sunday, there was more good news for them. The Chief Minister's Relief Fund would sponsor Rs.2 lakhs each for the surgeries and the number of philanthropists, like businessman G. Janardhana Reddy from Bellary who is providing Rs.10 lakhs each for five years, also seemed to swell. SAHI treasurer Sunita Reddy said the society was planning to intensify its campaign to help the 2,500 children who are born with hearing impairment every year in the State.

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Andhra Pradesh