The Jesuit Service Ear Care Program began in 1999 when our social and health workers visited children in the villages and found a distressing number of children suffering from deafness and ear disease.
There are many causes of deafness in Cambodia including accidents, disease, illness associated with poor hygiene, landmine explosion and old age. Early childhood illnesses associated with high fevers are a major cause of deafness as is the lack of pre-natal and infant medical care. Otitis, a highly contagious ear infection that can lead to deafness, is another significant medical problem and threat to hearing.
Social isolation is a result of deafness. For most of their lives at schools, at work, in community settings, deaf people are physically present in groups but not part of those groups because of their inability to communicate. Even in their homes deaf people tend to be ignored and not part of the family dynamics because of communication difficulties. Very often this causes misunderstandings and tensions within the family as deaf children are rejected or discounted. Elderly people who lose their hearing due to old age or landmine explosion also have similar experiences.
Our work is aimed at providing people with hearing problems medical assistance, as well as helping to alleviate some of the social integration issues they face. Our main Ear Centre is in Phnom Penh and we have satellite branches at our Centres in Siem Reap, Banteay Meanchey and Battambang.
At our Centre in Phnom Penh, our team carries out otoscopy, audiometry, hearing aid fitting and evaluating patient needs for surgery. In Siem Reap, we perform screening tests, audiometry, ear toilet and basic medical treatment. And at Banteay Meanchey, patients are given primary care and referred to Phnom Penh. Battambang operates as an annex to Emergency hospital for ear surgery.
We believe that a variety of responses are needed to address the problems of ear disease, hearing loss and deafness. Identifying mothers at risk and screening of their newborn children is a valuable first step. Early identification of children with hearing loss is another important response because the pre-school years are so critical for acquiring language and establishing a basis for general education. Early intervention will also help children with a hearing loss to receive better care and training and to be integrated more naturally into the family. Treating otitis so that no further damage to the ear is caused, as well as instruction in sanitation and basic health education are all needed.
Our Ear Care team is very grateful to the ear specialists from Australia and Britain for all the training and equipment they provided to us.
The Children're playing waiting
