IMPACT’S AFFORDABLE HEARING AID & SOLAR-POWERED HEARING AID BATTERY RECHARGER

Solar powered battery recharger The World Health Organisation estimates that 250 million people in the world live with a disabling level of hearing loss - half of which was preventable. Two-thirds of these people live in developing countries where few facilities exist to help them.

Hearing impairment has harsh social and economic consequences. In children it can hamper the development of speech, language and cognitive skills and make learning in school very difficult. In adults it can cause problems in gaining or holding down employment.

Many hearing impaired people would benefit from a hearing aid but the high cost puts them out of reach of those living below the poverty line in Africa, Asia and elsewhere. IMPACT has worked with an international team of experts to develop a quality affordable hearing aid to fill this gap.

But providing a hearing aid alone is not enough. Hearing aid batteries are too expensive for the very poorest people to replace when they run down, which effectively makes the hearing aid useless.

However, by utilizing re-chargeable batteries in the hearing aids, our new solar-powered hearing aid battery recharger provides an affordable answer and harnesses the free energy of the sun. Where there is insufficient daylight to complete the charging cycle mains backup is available.

The normal charging cycle for a battery takes approximately 14 hours, but our unit is designed to charge two batteries simultaneously therefore the user always has a freshly charged hearing aid battery for the hearing aid.

This recharger – winner of a 2006 Medical Design Excellence Award – is available directly from IMPACT’s office on a ‘Buy One GIVE One Free’ basis. Purchasing a recharger for your own use will enable us to give one to a hearing aid user in a developing country.

Please contact sales@impact.org.uk for further information.