I Can Hear How: how to get help

Almost 133 thousand people in Ukraine have impaired hearing. Approximately 10 thousand of them are children. Because of severe consequences, this problem is hard to cure in early childhood, as the child cannot properly communicate with the parents and contemporaries, cannot adequately develop and adapt in the society. Highly-sensitive hearing aid devices help these children get back into normal life. For children from socially-vulnerable families in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kharkiv Oblasts, these devices are provided by the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation under I Can Hear Now project.

One-year-old Artem became one of the participants of this project. The boy was born prematurely, on the 28^th week, and weighted only 940 grams. His mother was operated, as she needed a caesarean section.

‘My son was immediately sent to an intensive care unit, where he spent 11 days. The first examinations revealed that Artem is deaf-blind, and he had to undergo a laser correction of eyes at the age of two months,’ Vita Oleksandrivna, the child’s mother says.

To ensure the boy’s normal development, an audiologist recommended implanting advanced hearing aid devices. But what could the boy’s family do if their entire income is spent on paying for housing and food? The parents called the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation for help, and the response did not take long.

‘We are immensely grateful to Rinat Leonidovych for caring about our children,’ Artem’s mother thanked Mr. Akhmetov.

I Can Hear Now: how to get help under this project

This project offers help to children with newly-discovered hearing loss of 1^st to 4^th degree, aged between 0 and 7 years, from the most socially vulnerable families living in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kharkiv Oblasts. For detailed information, call the Foundation’s hotline at 0800-509-001.