Ear and Hearing Care Project determined to promote Neonatal Screening, Sign Language Communication
Five brand new neonatal ear screening machines have been handed over to the neonatal staff of Wum District Hospital, Banso Baptist Hospital, Ashong Baptist Health Center, Nkambe District Hospital and Ndu Baptist HealthCenter. The machines were handed to the beneficiaries during a one-day workshop on neonatal ear screening that took place at the Nkwen Baptist Hospital Hall on February 2, 2022.
The Ear and Hearing Care Project organized the workshop to train midwives from selected new sites on neonatal ear screening, identification, referrals to secondary and tertiary health facilities for treatment, rehabilitation and documentation. In the course of implementing the Ear and Hearing Care Project in the region, the afore-mentioned five beneficiary health facilities were selected as additional sites to provide ear and hearing care.
Meanwhile, the Bamenda Regional Hospital, Tubah District Hospital, and the Mbingo and Nkwen Baptist Hospitals were provided Otoacoustic Emissions machines to pilot neonatal ear screening in December 2020. During the workshop, a situational report of the implementation of neonatal ear screening by these four pilot facilities was done. The report showed a good mastery and effective use of the machine by some facilities and non-use by others because of some challenges.
Participants were schooled on the anatomy and physiology of the ear by the CBC Health Services Ear, Nose and Throat surgeon, Dr. Acha Evaristus. He explained that mastery of the different parts of the ear is important in the diagnosis, screening and prevention of hearing loss. The participants also received knowledge on and had a practical session on the use of the Otoacoustic Emissions machine used for neonatal screening.
The workshop ended with the handing over of five brand new Otoacoustic Emissions machines to the five sites selected for the extension of the service. The participants were charged to share knowledge gained with their colleagues when they return to their health facilities.
It should be made known that Newborn Hearing Screening is a quick procedure that checks a baby’s hearing and identifies those who need further testing. Babies use their hearing to learn to talk, so it’s important to identify hearing loss early, reason why the CBC Health Services through the Ear and Hearing Care Project is promoting neonatal ear screening.
Cameroon Sign Language Valorized
Still within the context of the Ear and Hearing Care Project, some stakeholders involved in the development and implementation of sign language initiatives within the region have identified and agreed on local signs that will be used to constitute a local sign language dictionary for the Northwest region of Cameroon. This was during a 2day meeting held at the Nkwen Baptist Hospital Conference Hall from February 3-4, 2022. The stakeholders included sign language trainers, teachers of inclusive schools, adults with hearing impairments and parents of children with disabilities.
Communication between people who are deaf and other community members in the North West Region is difficult because most community members do not know how to sign. The situation is made worse because of the variety of Cameroon signs used in the North-West region with each community having particular signs, distinct letters, words or expression that are used in communicating ideas.
It is against this backdrop that the CBC Health Services through the EHC Project initiated this activity aimed at recognizing and harmonising Cameroon Sign Language use in the Northwest region through the development of a standardized sign language dictionary and an early infant education strategy.
Using the draft of a sign language dictionary that was developed by some three Dutch speech therapists some years back, the stakeholders came up with content that will facilitate the development of a sign language dictionary. When completed, the Cameroon sign language dictionary, which will have harmonized words, will be used by education stakeholders to ease communication between North West region are taught using the American sign language but there has always been a problem of lack of American signs for typical local words and items. Consequently, this initiative has come to develop signs for local words not available in the American sign language dictionary.
After the workshop, the content developed will undergo reviews by a technical review team and then by a wider team. The review process will be followed by the launching and then official use of the local sign language dictionary.