Organization: MED-EL Elektromedizinische Geraete
Title: Hearing Awareness Event in Freetown
Al title (for format and translation – not permanent:
Hearing awareness event in Freetown
Description:
Hearing Awareness Event in Freetown / Sierra Leone
Hearing loss during childhood can profoundly affect language development, school performance, social participation, and lifelong opportunities. Yet in many low-resource settings, hearing impairment remains undetected and untreated, particularly among school-age children. The World Hearing Day 2026 campaign, with its theme “From communities to classrooms: hearing care for all children”, highlights the urgent need to prevent avoidable hearing loss and to ensure early identification, care and inclusion of children with hearing difficulties by linking community and school-based actions.
Aligned with this focus, the Hearing Awareness Event will be held as a comprehensive awareness, screening, and intervention event in Sierra Leone in March 2026 to elevate national understanding of childhood hearing loss, demonstrate evidence-based hearing care tools, and provide direct support to children in need.
Objectives:
– Raise awareness of the impact of childhood hearing loss among communities, educators, policymakers, and health professionals.
– Facilitate early identification of hearing loss in children using scalable tools (including e.g. the WHO hearing screening app)
– Provide access to amplification for children with identified hearing loss through a targeted hearing aid donation and fitting campaign.
– Strengthen linkages between community, health and educational sectors to promote sustainable hearing care pathways from communities to schools.
Key activities:
1. Awareness and Advocacy Event (Morning Programme)
A major half-day event will be held in Freetown around World Hearing Day (3 March 2026), bringing together key stakeholders from health, education, disability advocacy, civil society, and government.
The programme will include:
– General awareness-raising on hearing, hearing loss and hearing solutions, including basic information on how hearing works, common causes of childhood hearing loss, and available rehabilitation options such as hearing aids, cochlear implants, and educational support.
– Expert presentations on early identification of childhood hearing loss.
– A live demonstration of the WHO hearing screening app (WHOears), showcasing a user-friendly digital tool that supports early identification and referral.
– Advocacy discussions on integrating hearing care into school health programmes, in line with the WHD 2026 theme emphasizing that schools and communities are natural entry points for reaching children, parents and teachers.
– A testimonial from a cochlear implant or hearing aid user, sharing lived experience and reinforcing the value of accessible hearing care.
2. Hearing Aid Donation and Fittings:
As part of the initiative, a number of hearing aids will be donated from a partner company from Hungary for children who are identified with hearing loss. These devices will be provided at no cost to families who otherwise would not be able to access amplification.
Where feasible, hearing aid fittings will be conducted in connection with the World Hearing Day event to demonstrate how appropriate technology can support children’s communication, participation and learning. The fittings will also serve as a practical example of how early identification and timely intervention can directly improve educational and developmental outcomes for children with hearing loss.
3. Community-School Hearing Screening (Afternoon Activity)
Following the morning session, the project team will conduct school-based hearing screenings using the WHO hearing screening app with local teachers and health workers. This not only identifies children with hearing concerns but also builds local capacity for ongoing screening within school health initiatives, directly reinforcing the WHD 2026 call to embed hearing care into school and child health programmes.
Primary site: AFR – Sierra Leone
Region: AFR
General Photos
Types of Engagement:
Live event: Yes
Screening: Yes
Traditional media: Yes
Social media: Yes
Special needs populations:
Met with individual policymaker:
Participation of policy makers:
Participation of influencers:
WHO technical tool used:
WHO educational and social media used: Yes