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Campaign raises hearing loss and Deaf awareness

07 October 2024 | Story André Damons | Photo Supplied

Deaf awareness Campaign 2024 — Boipelo Leteane, Amahle Jemane, Zinzile Sibiya (Speech-Language Pathologist at UAH), Ntsatsi Dingaan-Mokushane, Andani Madzivhandila, Yolanda Nzume (Administration Clerk at UAH) and Dr Phindile Shangase at the Deaf Awareness Campaign at the UFS.

The Department of Speech Therapy and Audiology at Universitas Academic Hospital (UAH), in partnership with the Division of Public Health at the University of the Free State (UFS) recently held their annual Deaf Awareness Campaign with much success.

The campaign, which is the brainchild of Andani Madzivhandila, a Cochlear Implant MAPping Audiologist at Universitas Academic Hospital (UAH), is in its second year and was attended by Deaf students from the UFS, community members and academics from the UFS Faculty of Health Sciences, including Dr Phindile Shangase from the Division of Public Health at the UFS in collaboration with UAH Speech Therapy and Audiology staff.

Purpose of the event

The event took place on 28 September 2024 in the foyer of the Francoise Retief building. September is the International Month for Deaf People. The Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Med-EL assisted with some sponsorship to make the event a success. Ntsatsi Dingaan-Mokushane, the Assistant Director for Speech Therapy and Audiology at UAH, opened the ceremony and highlighted the importance of Deaf Awareness Campaigns in general and further elaborated on the World Federation of the Deaf theme for 2024, which is “Sign up for sign language rights”.

Dr Shangase shared her experiences and challenges of living with hearing loss and how she manages it, and further elaborated that the purpose of the event was to raise awareness of the different types of hearing loss, especially deafness. It was also to raise awareness of the challenges encountered by Deaf people and to discuss available technologies to assist those with hearing loss as well as those who are born profoundly Deaf.

The event is organised to share experiences from professionals, those with hearing loss as well as the Deaf community, to share experiences on coping and managing life with hearing loss as well as deafness. The organisers try to educate the public about Deaf culture, sign language and the experiences of Deaf people and to help combat stereotypes, stigmas and misconceptions surrounding deafness. The event is also to promote inclusion and encourage equal access to education, employment, healthcare as well as breaking down communication barriers and address systemic and social barriers that hinder Deaf individuals’ participation.

Sharing lived experiences

According to Dr Shangase, the event highlighted the progress as well as gaps in support interventions for those who live with hearing loss and deafness. Says Dr Shangase: “Availability of technologies was highlighted as facilitating different forms of participation for those with hearing loss and deafness. However, it was clear that most of the available technologies are not being adopted in workplaces as well as in communities.”

Boipelo Leteane, a parent of a two-year-old child who was born deaf, shared her experiences and her journey before and after her child had undergone a cochlear implant, while Madzivhandila shed some light on the challenges faced by healthcare professionals when hearing loss/deafness is diagnosed and needs to be managed.

Amahle Jemane also shared her personal experiences and challenges she faces daily as a signing young female in South Africa, where the majority of the population use spoken language, and she uses South African Sign Language (SASL).

News Archive

UFS doctors fight childhood cancer

2016-09-02

Description: Childhood cancer Tags: Childhood cancer

Prof David Stones and Dr Jan du Plessis of the
University of Free State’s paediatric oncology ward
are helping little lives, one patient at a time.
Photo: Nonsindiso Qwabe

Of 23 paediatric oncology specialists nationally, Prof David Stones and Dr Jan du Plessis of the University of Free State are the only ones in the province.

Committed to giving holistic care to their patients, the two doctors specialise in all types of childhood cancers, the most common being leukaemia, brain tumour, and nephroblastoma.

They describe the childhood malignancy as a lethal disease, unpredictability being its harshest trait. “With cancer, you can just never know. It precipitates and multiplies, and leads to the failure of other organs. You can just always hope, and keep trying,” said Du Plessis.

The paediatric oncology unit of the Universitas Academic Hospital, their unit, is the liveliest floor in the entire building. It is also the third busiest in South Africa, serving a demographic that spans the Free State and Northern Cape, as well as parts of North West, Eastern Cape and Lesotho.

Each year, the unit receives more than 100 new childhood cancer patients. In 2015, the unit had 113 newly diagnosed patients, an increase from 93 in 2014.

Lack of knowledge poses a serious challenge
According to the two experts, the lack of insight and awareness of the disease remain a big challenge to fighting it. “It is frustrating. Parents and family members don’t know anything about it. Nurses and doctors aren’t always clinically trained to pick up the early warning signs. By the time a diagnosis is made, life and death is on a 50% margin,” Stones said.

Poverty, a lack of resources, overcrowding and a range of health issues are other factors that have a profound effect on the diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

Making a contribution that will last
With a desire to see an improvement on life outcomes in the health sector, the team is focusing on educating the country’s doctors of tomorrow. Their unit is the only one in the country that actively involves medical students in an oncology unit, giving them practical experience and exposure to the individual cases each patient presents. They have also produced a substantial amount of research literature on childhood malignancies in South Africa as a developing country.

Driven by passion to see a better South Africa
The doctors are passionate about the work they do, and remain hopeful there will be a change in the incidence of childhood cancer not just in decreased levels of the disease, but also in the overall state of well-being of young South Africans.

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