235 deaf/hard of hearing children in a single school and not a single working hearing aid among them.
   45 children now have a pair of working hearing aids as a direct result of our visit.
   190 children have had earmould impressions taken and are waiting for our next visit to be fitted with their new hearing aids.
   Where am I talking about? Not Ireland surely. No, I have just returned from an enlightening and heart-warming visit to a school for deaf children in Vitsebsk, Belarus! "Where?!" I hear you say… Let me start at the beginning…
   Back in January, my colleague Judy Nugent, told me about this trip. She was to travel out to Belarus with Brian Coffey, a hearing aid technician and Jean Hegarty, an audiologist from Cork. Unfortunately, she was unable to go this time and asked if I would be interested in taking her place. It took a few days to sink in but the more I thought about it and the more I found out about it I knew that it would be an experience of lifetime not to be missed. It would also be invaluable to me in my training as audiologist.
   The Republic of Belarus is a former Soviet Union state and regained its independence in 1991. It is situated in Eastern Europe and borders Russia in the North and East, Ukraine on the southeast, Poland on the West and Lithuania and Latvia in the north-east.
   The project coordinator, Brian Coffey of Acoustic Technologies, contacted me a few days later and said that he would be delighted to have me on his team. He explained that we would be revisiting a school for deaf and hard of hearing children in the northeast of Belarus. Brian had been out for a brief exploratory visit in November and took earmould impressions of 45 of the children there. My role on this trip would be to fit these children with two hearing aids each, tapping into my own experience as a hearing aid user. Jean and Brian would be cross checking some of the school's audiograms for accuracy and taking impressions of the remaining 190 children.
   The three of us met up in Shannon airport on Thursday 26th February. We flew out at midday directly to Minsk, the capital of Belarus where we were met by Colonel Marat Egorov, Chairman of the Belarusian Peace Foundation who ensured a quick and hassle free passage through passport control! Once through passport control we were joined by our translators (colleagues and friends!) for the week, Victor and Larisa. Thursday night was spent in Minsk before we continued our journey to Vitsebsk which is situated 277km north east of Minsk. Unfortunately, there was no train to Vitsebsk next morning so the journey was made by road in an old six-seater van! A long straight road with snow covered fir trees on either side interspersed by small villages en route.
   We arrived at the school about 3 o'clock on Friday and were warmly greeted by the principal, Michael Zdezev. We were given a hearty lunch before being taken to our hotel to check in. We headed back to the school about 5pm to set ourselves up for an early start on Saturday morning. We ended up staying there till 9.30pm and got quite a bit of work done breaking only for a light supper! We worked all day Saturday, Sunday and Monday and finished a day ahead of schedule. Jean and I were given a couple of hours on Sunday to do a bit of shopping and sightseeing!
   During our three and a half days there, we were given a guided tour of the school. Although it was an old building, it was clean, warm and had a very cheerful atmosphere. This was evident not just around the building but among the children and teachers themselves. There was clever use of paint to give the school a homely feel and in one part of the school where the infants had their dormitories and classrooms, most of the corridors were painted with oversized cartoon characters! Many of classrooms had bookshelves filled with samples of the children's own craftwork. Trailing plants adorned the tops of these shelves and the floors were lined with Persian style rugs. Most of the classrooms appeared to be acoustically friendly - well from my point of view as a hard of hearing person! All the classrooms we visited had diagrams on the walls depicting the shape of one's mouth and tongue to help children understand the articulation of each letter of the alphabet. This was used in conjunction with an old style 'hard wire' system installed in each classroom, the same as was used in Irish deaf schools in the 1960's & 70's according to Brigid MacSweeney!
   One of the things which was very much in evidence in the school was the creative and artistic talents of the pupils. This was actively encouraged in all age groups from 4 to 18 year olds. On one of our tours we saw some of the pupils making leather mobile phone cases, finely crafted wooden boxes, dolls in the national Belarusian costume, necklaces, tea-cosies etc. I also saw some lovely embroidery done by 7 & 8 year olds. There were various displays of handmade puppets, collages, silkscreen prints, drawings and paintings.
   The teachers in the school are extremely dedicated making sure the kids have the best possible chances with the very limited resources that are available e.g. no hearing aids, no computers, great difficulty obtaining paper, materials etc. During a break in our working schedule I got the chance to ask one of the teachers, Svetelana, some questions about the education of deaf and hard of hearing children in Vitsebsk. The following is some of the information I gathered:
    - The school is state funded and is run by a principal and assisted by 3 deputy principals.
    - There are 235 children currently in the school.
    - They have a total staff of 240; this includes teachers, catering staff, maintenance staff etc. Of this number there are 160 teachers.
    - All teachers have two qualifications: a Diploma of Education in their specialised subjects e.g. Maths, History etc and a Diploma of Deaf Teaching.
    - There is no early diagnostic facility in Vitsebsk however, they have recently begun to diagnose deaf children as young as 2/3 months in hospitals in Minsk. In general it is sometimes possible to make a diagnoses at 18 months/2years.
   - Deaf/hard of hearing children from 3years old can attend a special pre-school - this is the first year this has been run and currently (Feb 2004) there are 6 children enrolled. There are many more children who may have a hearing loss and who have not been diagnosed and therefore are not known about. Free education is available for deaf/hard of hearing children who all attend a special school.
   - Children who have a severe/profound hearing loss generally have a zero level of speech when entering school. Others with less severe loss may have a very low level of speech and language.
    - Older teachers tend to use the old methods which concentrate more on oralism, but the more recently trained teachers will use a mixture of oral and combined depending on the needs of that individual child. Children who have some residual hearing, the emphasis will be on oralism. Those with very poor hearing will focus more on manual communication. Pupils have 3 sessions a week on a one-to-one basis which last for 20 minutes a time where the emphasis is on pronunciation & phonetics etc. Now that hearing aids are being brought into the school this will improve the oral methods and it is hoped that kids with hearing aids will speak to each other.
    - Up to now - due to the lack of hearing aids - the conservation of speech and language has been largely dependent on the high quality of teaching with hard, hard work! Teaching methods can only be a success if parents really want it to work. Parents are told what to concentrate on and practice at home e.g. correct pronunciation of certain letters/words. The parents have a very important role to play in the education of their deaf child(ren).
    - When it comes to rating the standard of literacy and language proficiency teachers go by the state standard. Albums (progress reports) are made every year for each child. The language proficiency and literacy of each child is tested every year as well as the child's hearing acceptability.
    - There is a special 3rd level college where deaf/hard of hearing pupils can go for further education. This is a mixed college i.e. other pupils who have different disabilities also go there (similar to Roslyn Park in Dublin). There are opportunities to go to a technical college where they can pursue courses like dentistry, carpentry, teaching, etc all leading to high-level qualifications.
    - Sign language users are more likely to go into manual employment than pursue 3rd level education. They can avail of sign language interpreters. There is also a Deaf Enterprises. All pupils leave school with a working qualification. Once the pupils have left school the teachers do try to keep in touch with them and follow their progress.
   As I said earlier, we finished our work in Vitsebsk a day early and so we decided to head back to Minsk on Tuesday morning; this time the journey was by train! It was quite comfortable and we passed the time by watching a comedy film being played on the TV! When it comes to comedies even the language isn't too much of a barrier.
   As we had some impression material leftover we visited a deaf school in Minsk and during the course of the afternoon took impressions of 50 children. Some of the children in this school had hearing aids but when Brian tested them he said they were of a very poor quality.
   Wednesday was spent at leisure - I think we deserved it at this stage! We spent the morning browsing through a department store and the afternoon in a military museum which was fascinating.
   It was really interesting comparing prices of things like fridges and washing machines - they are the same price in Belarus as they are in Ireland. A box of washing powder was about 6 euro… Eating out was probably about a third of the cost of Dublin. But having said all that, teachers in Belarus, who would be on the same sort of salary scale as their doctors, lawyers and other professionals, only get about 100 euro a month. No wonder most people can't afford cars, washing machines etc. Many of the houses we saw in Vitsebsk did not even have indoor sanitary facilities - they had outdoor toilets and went to a communal bathing area for their showers etc…
   We flew back to Shannon early on Thursday morning. A brilliant week but oh boy, was I glad to see the green grass of Ireland again. A week of snow was lovely but to live with it for four or five months at a time…
   We will be going back again in June to take out and fit 500 hearing aids and earmoulds to the children we visited this time. I am sure that we will discover another couple of schools that will need our help. It will also be interesting to see the progress of the 45 children who were fitted with hearing aids on this trip. We certainly have our work cut out.
   And finally, but by no means least, if you have any unwanted hearing aids lying in your drawers, maybe that of a loved one who has passed away, wouldn't it be comforting to know that these hearing aids could greatly improve the quality of life of a child? You can drop your old or disused hearing aid into your local hearing aid centre or send them to:
   Acoustic Technologies Ltd.
   PO Box 9116
   Glenageary
   Co Dublin
   Ireland.
   If you would like an acknowledgement of your hearing aid, and would like to receive a newsletter when we have completed the initial stages of this project please include your name and address.
   For Further information contact:
   Acoustic Technologies Ltd.
   Email: acoustec@iol.ie
   Phone: (00353-1) 2806511