This Friday, 29th October, throw the fashion rulebook out the window and find the most clashing prints, the brightest colours and the wildest patterns in your wardrobe to raise vital funds for The Hearing House and the Southern Cochlear Implant Programme (SCIP) – the only two charities in New Zealand dedicated to helping children and adults with cochlear implants learn to listen and communicate.
“Hearing loss can impact anyone at any time and cochlear implants change lives – the impact of this technology is profound,” says Dr Claire Green, Chief Executive at The Hearing House. “It couldn’t be easier to show your support and help us continue to provide our life-changing services. Just put on the very loudest shirt you own and encourage your friends, whānau and co-workers to do the same to raise much-needed funds for Loud Shirt Day 2021!”
The Hearing House works with more than 1,000 Kiwis in the upper North Island to deliver a range of services and therapy programmes to assist people with cochlear implants and their wider whānau as they learn to listen and communicate.
The Southern Cochlear Implant Programme provides care to more than 1,250 adults and children throughout the South Island and as far north as Taupo. The team provides all cochlear implant assessments, arranges surgery, activates the cochlear implant, administers adjustments and provides post-implant rehabilitation services.
Ways to help:
- Text LOUD to 305 and donate $3 to Loud Shirt Day,
- Organise a gold coin donation to take part in a LOUD dress-up day at your office or your kids’ school,
- Businesses could hold a themed lunch,
- Or get the whole town/community immersed in fundraising!
Hearing loss can be genetic but is also caused by infections and viruses. A cochlear implant is often the last and only viable treatment to give a person access to sound. It’s a surgically-implanted electronic device that restores hearing for those with profound hearing loss.
Public funding gives recipients access to cochlear implant technology but both charities depend on donations to deliver specialised support throughout each recipient’s lifetime.
“It’s an indescribable feeling for our patients having their cochlear implants switched on for the very first time,” says Neil Heslop, Chief Executive of the Southern Cochlear Implant programme. “However, the switch on is only the beginning of a person’s journey to access sound with cochlear implants. Recipients require intensive specialised support and therapy as they learn to process sound through their cochlear implants, and depend on our services throughout their lives. As our largest fundraising event of the year, Loud Shirt Day is critical to this work across both SCIP and The Hearing House”.
Learn more at the Loud Shirt Day website, Facebook or Instagram.
Use #GetLoud2021 on social media to share your activities with the world!
