“My Daughter Will Quickly Catch Up With What She Lost Due to Her Hearing Impairment”: 5-Year-Old Ivanna From Zaporizhzhia Hears the World Again Thanks to Modern Hearing Aids From the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation

Ivanna from Zaporizhzhia is five years old. When the girl reached the age at which she is expected to be able to speak well, her family noticed some problems with her speech. The examination revealed that she has poor hearing in both ears and as a result, she cannot pronounce words correctly. The family could not afford expensive hearing aids for Ivanna. The Rinat Akhmetov Foundation came for help and now, thanks to ultra-modern hearing aids, the girl can fully hear the world around her, which will have a positive effect on her development.

“Today we have received the best hearing aids, I think. We did not even dream about them, but we have got a pleasant surprise. Thus, our daughter will catch up with what she lost faster. I am very grateful to the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation for helping us. They did not turn their back and responded positively very quickly. In the times of the war, it is difficult to afford treatment for children and take due care of them, as well as to buy such expensive devices,” says the girl’s mother, Tetiana.

She learned that the Foundation provides assistance to children with hearing aids from an acquaintance who saw a message about it on social networks. Tetiana wrote to the Foundation on Facebook and quickly received a response. Soon after, the family was invited to the Hearing Centre, where Ivanna was once again examined and the hearing aids most suitable for her were picked.

“Ivanna has 1–2-degree sensorineural hearing loss and she needs bilateral digital hearing aids. These are very nice, very modern devices made in Denmark, and they have settings formula designed for children. We have selected the best devices for the girl that ensure intelligibility of speech: this is exactly what she needs. The parents and their daughter need to attend some classes with a teacher for children with hearing impairment and undergo periodic adjustments. And everything will be fine,” says Hanna Yanichkina, an audiologist and hearing prosthetist at the Hearing Centre. 

In the framework of the project Rinat Akhmetov for Children. I Can Hear Now the assistance with hearing aids can be offered to children with hearing impairment who are under the age of 7 years old and who live or lived in territorial communities affected by the armed hostilities, were under occupation or encirclement.

If your relatives or acquaintances have a child who is in need of hearing aids, contact the toll-free hotline 0 (800) 509 001 (the telephone line is open from Monday to Friday), or write to the Foundation’s messenger https://m.me/AkhmetovFDU