Five-year-old Sristi is a lively, intelligent and delightful little girl. She also has profound hearing impairment.
I first met her and her family last June at the Nepali government’s Western Regional Hospital in Pokhara, where she attends for speech and language therapy. She was wearing a body-worn analogue hearing aid and, as I started to work with her in the following weeks, it became obvious that she was hearing very little with this aid.
We arranged for her to have her hearing assessed in Kathmandu using a more developed hearing test. We all travelled together the 200 kilometres, which takes seven or more hours on the very winding road. In Western countries this assessment is widely available, however in Nepal it is only carried out in a teaching hospital in Kathmandu. The assessment confirmed that Sristi’s hearing loss is profound, and to hear at a satisfactory level to develop speech and language she will need a cochlear implant.
In my home country the UK, this operation would be paid for by the National Health Service and children who would benefit from it are usually diagnosed early and receive the implantation before their third birthday. In Nepal the money for this operation, equivalent to almost US$18,000, has to be raised by the family. Sristi’s family are poor and will be unable to pay this amount.
In Nepal what lies in store for a bright girl with no hearing or speech? Currently she has not started school as her local school will not admit her due to her disability. Her family cannot afford the cost of sending her to a private school or a school for deaf children.
Please thank God: for Sristi’s mother, who works hard with speech and language therapy activities for her daughter.
Please pray: for the work at the Western Regional Hospital and the committed team of Nepali people who work there; and that speech and language therapy will be recognised throughout Nepal as an important part of improving people’s communication skills and quality of life.
‘Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy.’ Isaiah 35:5-6
Written by Nicola Stewart.
Speech and Language Therapist
INF Kaski Programme
