| China Charity Group Launches Program Helping Hearing Deprived Children
China Soong Ching Ling Foundation (CSCLF), a Beijing-based charity group, launched a program on September 5 offering free treatment to children with hearing defects from needy families.
The first group of ten children will receive free artificial cochlear implant surgeries, which is an effective way of treating deafness early in babies, said a statement from the foundation.
About 27.8 million people experience some level of deafness in China, which is one fifth of the world's total hearing deprived population, among whom nearly 140,000 are under six years old.
The number of children diagnosed with hearing defects in China has increased by an average of 30,000 annually and not all of them can not afford artificial cochlear implant surgeries.
The foundation will arrange a 1.5 million yuan (about 235,000 U.S.dollars) start-up fund, the statement said.
The children will be chosen from across the country and the program will become a routine one in the future, said Li Xikui, deputy secretary general of the CSCLF.
He hoped more donors would participate in the campaign to treat children with some level of deafness.
(Source: Xinhua) | 
