KENYA RECOGNIZES EFFECTIVENESS OF STARKEY HEARING FOUNDATION’S WFA® COMMUNITY-BASED HEARING HEALTHCARE MODEL TO HELP PEOPLE OF KENYA

NAIROBI, KENYA - August 5, 2016, Starkey Hearing Foundation (SHF) participated in Republic of Kenya’s launch of Kenya National Strategy for Ear Health and Hearing Care. This is the Country’s first strategic plan that advances hearing health care in Kenya, a major health accomplishment to help more than two million in Kenya who live with hearing loss.

This is another significant milestone for SHF as the plan includes the WFA® Community-based hearing health care, which demonstrates support and recognizes the effectiveness for our proven model from the World Health Organization and the Republic of Kenya.

The event included Tani Austin, co-founder, Starkey Hearing Foundation, who emphasized the power of collaboration with local and national government, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), and health leaders to help people with hearing loss. Leaders in hearing health care have witnessed the model in action and how SHF works with them to identify patients and fit them with hearing devices, while also providing follow-up care, mainstreaming services, and self-empowerment tools.

Stakeholders and authors of the plan can attest to the simplicity of the model and that hearing devices are provided free of cost. In Kenya, SHF teams are in place to provide ongoing care and analysis to monitor effectiveness, which makes it sustainable, and that we can fit from one to thousands of patients in a given timeframe, which makes it scalable.

The Republic of Kenya Ministry of Health oversaw the development of the strategic plan that entailed a consultative process involving key stakeholders and experts in hearing health care. The Ear and Hearing Care Technical Working Group consisted of:

• Ear and Hearing Care Technical Working Group
• Starkey Hearing Foundation
• Operation Eardop
• World Health Organization Kenya Country Officer
• Christoffel Blinden Mission.
• The University of Nairobi (UoN)
• Ministry of Education (MoE)
• Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH)

Pictured below, from left to right: Prof. I. M. Macharia - University of Nairobi, Owen Olende - Director of Global Development SHF, Cabinet Secretary for Health - Cleopa Mailu, Tani Austin - Co-Founder SHF, Kristina Pratt- Chairperson National Fund for the disabled in Kenya and Richard Brown - Board President SHF.