This year’s chosen charity is the Listen hEAR group and nominated by one of our long-standing Club members. It was launched this year by three local women who all have had the devastating experience of a diagnosis of a child being born profoundly deaf. Our member’s grandchild was diagnosed as being deaf at two weeks old and following a three year programme whereby she has undergone cochlear implant surgery, is now hearing and speaking. Unfortunately there was no local support network for this family but they managed to identify two other local families undergoing the same struggle for information, advice and support.
Listen hEAR was formed to help provide advice, support and a ‘listening ear’ to these families and of course to the children, all of whom have varying degrees of deafness. There are now eleven families involved locally (Downpatrick, Annacloy, Crossgar and Saintfield); of the thirteen children who attend the local playgroup in Crossgar on a Tuesday morning, three have been cochlear implanted. One of the most effective forms of stimulation for implanted and hearing impaired children is musical therapy. This service is delivered by professionals in the field of music and hearing impaired but comes at a cost. A year’s therapy for the children in the group, on a monthly basis, cost approximately £500 on top of the other support programmes and training the group have planned for the children and their parents.
In the tradition of our Club’s charitable support over the years, we would ask our members to ‘dig deep’, ask your friends and relatives to buy a ballot ticket on their behalf on the night of the AGM or if you wish, send the donation to the Club Secretary who will purchase these on your behalf in advance. If any member would like to sponsor a ballot prize, again contact the Club Secretary and we can add that to our growing list.
Thank you all once again for your anticipated support.
Noel Taggart
Company Scretary
