Jamshedpur March 30: The voluntary charitable organization Centre for Hearing Impaired Children (CHIC) on Saturday organized it�s annual sports day. Ruchi Narendran, Patron of the organization was present on the occasion.
Speaking about CHIC, Mrs. Narendran said, �Not too many people know about Centre for Hearing Impaired Children, and it’s upon us to spread the word and do our little bit for the society. It is important for all of us to acknowledge that hearing impairment is not a stigma, rather a curable phenomenon. We applaud the effort of the parents who have stood beside us in helping us continue the good work.”
The Centre�s primary consideration at present is to get as many hearing impaired infants as possible to introduce them into the hearing world, thereby integrating them into preprimary and primary schools. The methodology used is the �Auditory � Verbal Method� which means learning to �Listen� and teaching them to �Talk�, as distinct from the sign language system. This approach to training is based on the research finding of Master Clinician and Audiologist, Doreen Pollack. The infant centre, catering to babies and small children, following the Auditory Verbal Method, so far exists only in Mumbai, Jamshedpur, Chennai, Pune and possibly one or two more cities.
The Centre started with 2 children and over the span of 33 years has now got 321 children on its roll. About 182 children have been integrated and most of the children are from low income groups.
The Centre has diagnostic, educational, counseling and research facilities. It is a preprimary education centre for hearing impaired children, free of charge, irrespective of caste or creed. It provides free hearing aids to the poor children. The CHIC Team consists of Dipika Lall, Nabomita Chakraborty, Sushmita Samanta, Neha Sharma, Sanjay Kumar Mishra, K S Bajpai and G.C. Ghosh.