|
|
Tango, hearing aids and a charitable action
|
 What
connection is there between argentine tango, hearing aids and
a charitable action? At first glance, you would say there is
none.
I had my first experience of argentine tango a few years ago
in a café. I was immediately fascinated by the music and the
movements of the dancers and straight away it was clear to me
that I would have to learn to dance it – following lots of
courses, doing lots of workshops and then practicing,
practicing and practicing. Because, unlike the ballroom tango
that is so
 widespread
in Europe and in which the dancers learn sequences of steps by
heart, argentine tango is fundamentally based on leading and
following. Each movement can be guided and in this way a high
level of improvisation can be reached.
For a while now, I have been teaching
tango.
And, with so much tango, it was inevitable that I would end up
travelling to Argentina to dance it. |
|
Used hearing aids as a means of help
|
 In
my profession as a hearing aid technician, my clients always
ask me what can be done with their used hearing aids. There
are organisations that collect used glasses, but what about
hearing aides?
Through a friend I looked for contacts in Argentina and found
the FANDA foundation (www.fundacionfanda.org.ar),
which is dedicated to supplying hearing aids to children of
low economic means with impaired hearing. In a country like
Argentina, where one in four workers is unemployed, there is
almost no social support to help these children.
 Dr
Romano, the director of FANDA, has a hearing institute and
invests almost 70% of her time doing voluntary work for the
charity. Five other hearing technicians collaborate with her,
also as volunteers without payment.
Until now, FANDA relied only on hearing aids donated by the
local community. However, because of the difficult economic
situation in the country, recently not even middle class
argentines have been able to regularly change their hearing
aids. In Argentina, not everybody has health insurance, and
even for those who do, their insurance often does not provide
for a change of hearing aid.
 Having
decided to help FANDA, I informed the local press, which
published articles about my planned action and asked readers
to donate hearing aids that were not in use. The resonance of
this action was huge. Everyday people arrived at my shop to
donate old hearing aids. Enthused by this success, I informed
colleagues elsewhere in the business. Straight away they
joined the initiative and also published articles in their
local newspapers.
In this way, I ended up travelling to Buenos Aires with more
than 90 used hearing aids in my luggage. Dr
Romano met me when I arrived and immediately we set dates for
the first deliveries. Together we fitted hearing aids for the
first five children.
 The majority of the recipients had a high
level of hearing loss and used a hearing aid for the first
time in their lives. The happiness of the children and their
parents was immense. The other hearing aids remained with Dr
Romano, who took charge of adapting and distributing them to
the other beneficiaries.
 Since
then I have returned to Buenos Aires twice with a further 500 hearing aids to help many more hearing impaired children. With these it was
possible to help many children with hearing difficulties.
During my trip, I was able to strengthen my collaboration with
the Fanda association and I was appointed as a representative
of the charity in Europe.
But there are still many deprived children in Buenos Aires
with hearing difficulties, therefore this action needs to
continue. We are very grateful to receive every used hearing
aid that helps us to make the heart of an argentine child beat
more strongly. |
|
|
|
|
<<