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January 29, 2006
Kids lend helping ears to Vietnamese students
Forty hearing aids, collected by Takamatsu middle school students with hearing disabilities, were shipped to Vietnam last week through the Kagawa Supporting Organization of Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers. Thirteen students attending the prefectural middle school for children with hearing impairments launched a drive in November to collect hearing aids after learning how expensive the devices were in Vietnam.
One of the teachers at the school, Aki Fujii, was dispatched to a school in Da Nang in central Vietnam as a JOCV member of the Japan International Cooperation Agency in July 2004. She has been assigned to teach art and music to primary school students with hearing disabilities until the end of March.
She reports on her activities in Vietnam on her Web site, and has posted pictures of her classes, traditional Vietnamese clothing and foodstuffs on the site.
At the end of October, Fujii sent an e-mail to the Takamatsu school saying: "Hearing aids in Vietnam are expensive--more than the average monthly salary. At the school I teach, only a few students wear hearing aids all day. Is there anything we can do about it?"
Teachers at the Takamatsu school suggested the student council launch a school drive to send hearing aids to Vietnam. The students began seeking contributions the following month.
The students asked parents of the school's affiliated kindergarten, primary, middle and high schools to donate any used hearing aids. They also put up posters at prefectural welfare centers near the school.
At the school festival on Nov. 3, they distributed leaflets calling for contributions.
Thanks to their efforts, they collected 49 hearing aids, including some from stores and alumni. However, nine of them were not operational, so they could only send 40 of them.
On Jan. 19, the student council president, Miku Hayashibara, 15; vice president, Naoya Nakayama, 14; and Tomoyoshi Noda, the teacher who headed the drive; handed a box containing the hearing aids to Shigeru Yamaji, secretary general of JOCV's Kagawa Supporting Organization.
"I hope these will help the Vietnamese children hear better and study more easily," Hayashibara said.
Noda said: "This was a valuable experience for the students. They learned how to help society and the important role of hearing aids."
The hearing aids will arrive at the Vietnamese school where Fujii works later this month.
By The Yomiuri Shimbun
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20060130TDY19002.htm
Posted by 4HL on January 29, 2006 8:43 PM
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