Hearing Assessment Centre opens in Cape Coast
An ultra-modern Hearing Aid and Assessment Centre for the Cape Coast School of the Deaf and Visually Impaired was on Friday inaugurated by the Acting Central Regional Minister, Mrs Ama Benyiwa-Doe.
It was constructed by the Cape Coast Crystal Lions in collaboration with Lions Club International.
The plush GH¢500,000 facility, which is the first of its kind to be instituted in the country, is well equipped with state-of-the-art hearing assessment aids including a tympanometer, ear irrigator, tunning fork and AC 40 audiometer.
It will help in the early detection of childhood hearing defects to facilitate immediate treatment and also provide counselling services to the public and attend to serious referral cases.
Mrs Benyiwa-Doe said the centre would, among others, serve as a teaching and learning centre for students of the University of Cape Coast School of Medical Sciences and benefit the under-privileged in the region and beyond.
She expressed gratitude to the Lions Club Ghana for the gesture and urged other organizations and the country’s developing partners to continue to support government programmes to improve the lot of the people.
Mrs Benyiwa-Doe commended both the teaching and non-teaching staff for their dedication to duty in spite of the challenges facing the school and urged them to keep the spirit up, adding that they should maintain the facility regularly for the benefit of society.
Ms Gloria Esi Lassey, Governor of District 403 A2 Lions Club International, said the centre would not serve the school only but be opened to the public in order to help prevent hearing impairment diseases early.
She indicated that the major objective of Lions Club was to support the underprivileged in society and put smiles on their faces and pledged their continued support to help reduce suffering in their communities.
Ms Lassey thanked the main financiers of the project; the Lions Club International Foundation and Vanguard Assurance Company, for making its dream a reality.
Ms Barbara Ennin, Headmistress of the School, thanked Lions Club for the centre and appealed to the government to support the school with the requisite equipment to make teaching and learning easier.
She said it was the dream of management to establish a secondary technical for the deaf in addition to the basic and vocational schools.
A six-member board of directors was instituted to see to the running of the centre.
Present at the ceremony was Mr Ebo Barton-Odro, Member of Parliament for Cape Coast North and First Deputy Speaker of Parliament.
Source: GNA