“Let Every Child Have a Voice to Hear” event kicks off at Damascus University

On the occasion of the 1st anniversary of the launch of the National Program for Early Hearing Loss Detection and Intervention in Newborns, an event, titled “Let every child have a voice to hear”, kicked off on Monday at the University of Damascus.

 Minister of Health Hassan Al-Ghabbash affirmed in a speech that the program, during its first year, had completed a national protocol with international standards and updated procedures for hearing detection, intervention and rehabilitation, expanded the number of audiological screening centers to make the service more available and supplied the survey centers with the necessary cadres, equipment and infrastructure to provide needed services in accordance with approved standards.

Al-Ghabbash stressed that in its first year, the program have pleased 23,000 families either through reassuring them about their children’s hearing health or through providing necessary intervention like hearing aid, including cochlear surgery, and then doing necessary rehabilitation for them so that they become like their peers in society.

He added that an in-depth training program for doctors on cochlear implantation has been provided, which is a specialized scientific program that aims to have more than 10 new doctors in Syria within a year and who are capable of performing cochlear implants with very high efficiency.

Health minister said that Legislative Decree No. 19 of 2024 regarding the rights of persons with disabilities moved the concept of disability from a charity-based approach to a human rights-based approach.

Al-Ghabbash noted that the achievement has not ended, but rather has begun now, with strength, collective efforts, and work that took many years to accomplish, during which the official state agencies, its civil institutions, civil society organizations, and their experts worked to achieve the desired results for children who suffer from hearing loss.

 The Minister said: “Our goal is to reach every newborn child through a screening center that is not far from the family place, to check on their hearing ability or for appropriate intervention and rehabilitation through skilled doctors in the governorates”.

Rawaa Ghanam