Air Seychelles and C&W donate hearing aids for children

Air Seychelles and Cable & Wireless have teamed up to support the Ministry of Health by donating a consignment of hearing aids for children with hearing impairments in Seychelles.

The project was organized as part of a “Happy To Give” campaign by Cable & Wireless which invited people to donate their Cable Points towards fundraising efforts in order to stand a chance of winning business and economy class tickets on flights to Paris, Abu Dhabi, Johannesburg and Mauritius with Air Seychelles.

Edwin Adrienne, Eddy Sinon, Ewan Rose and Tasiana Albert the four winners of the Cable Points SMS raffle collected their prize from Air Seychelles throughout the event held at the Ministry of Health.

The campaign lasted throughout July and raised a total of SCR 195,000 towards the procurement of hearing aids, batteries and other accessories which will be distributed by the Ministry of Health to children on Mahé, Praslin and La Digue whilst the remaining amount collected will be donated to the Deaf Association to support the construction of the Deaf Centre.

The consignment including a special laptop for calibrating the hearing aids according to individual requirements was donated to Dr. Danny Louange, Chief Executive Officer of the Healthcare Agency at the Seychelles Hospital.

There are an estimated 900 people with various levels of hearing loss in Seychelles, many of whom are children that will benefit from the project.

Roy Kinnear, Chief Executive Officer of Air Seychelles, said: “The gift of hearing opens up a world of opportunities for children with hearing difficulties as listening is essential for the development of speech and language skills.

“We cooperated closely with Cable & Wireless on this project and are delighted by the overwhelming response of the public in Seychelles who helped to make this donation possible.

“Air Seychelles puts great emphasis on community projects and we believe that working closely together with like-minded strategic partners not only brings about better results, but greater community involvement.”

Charles Hammond, Chief Executive Officer of Cable & Wireless, said: “There is nothing as noble as helping a child acquire a hearing aid, and I’m proud of our people because they understand that.

“To put the public response in perspective, the amount of Cable Points donated in just one week after the campaign was launched, was higher than any other ‘Happy to Give’ donation we have ever recorded.

“The champions in this are our customers and I would like to encourage more people to donate and make a difference in the future.”