Americans Helping Asian Children Charity Foundation (AHAC) made the donation, bringing the total number of hearing aids donated by the organisation to hearing impaired kids in Viet Nam over the past eight years to over 5,000, worth more than US$300,000.

Beneficiaries of the good will were hearing-impaired children from 50 schools in 23 provinces and two cities, according to Nguyen Vinh Nghiep, president of HCM City Sponsoring Association for Poor Patients (SAPP).

In addition, AHAC donated professional health equipment such as audiometers and ABR hearing test machines, which costs hundreds of thousands of US dollars.

The donations were part of the Sound and Speech for Hearing-Impaired Children project which was jointly implemented by SAPP and AHAC over the past eight years.

"We understand that to purchase this kind of hearing equipment, each AHAC member has to contribute their hard work and time to organise fund raising dinners," said Nghiep during a meeting with the AHAC mission on Tuesday.

The charity foundation came to Viet Nam in 1992 and began co-operation with SAPP eight years ago, said Bruce Johnson, AHAC president. — VNS

Source: http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=02SOC250306