September marks International Deaf Awareness Month, and this year, Hold My Hand is urging South Africa to rethink what it means to really listen. In South Africa, up to 17 babies are born every day in with permanent hearing loss1, that is an estimated 6 000 babies who are born with hearing loss each year.2
However, most children go undiagnosed at birth, and for many years after missing a critical window for support. This results in silence: children who are unable to hear, and/or have difficulty communicating. Babies and children are not provided with the support they need to promote cognitive development at a very critical time, and their families are left navigating this life-changing moment alone. Our healthcare system fails to provide everyone with early hearing detection and intervention which includes newborn hearing screening and support for both the child and family, as well as an opportunity for children to access assistive devices like hearing aids or cochlear implants as well as sign and spoken language support.
The Hold My Hand campaign is shining a spotlight on one of the actions we can take for children with severe or profound hearing loss: universal newborn hearing screening. When babies are screened in the first month of life and receive support before they are six months old, they’re far more likely to develop language and connect meaningfully with the world, whether through speech, sign, or both.
For a baby, communicating with their caregiver is critical: for bonding and brain power. The game-changer is identifying babies who cannot hear and ensuring caregivers are equipped to communicate appropriately with their baby or to provide their baby the opportunity to hear their voice. However, access to both speech and occupational therapy as well as audiology services, which include hearing technology, remains unequal.
“Too often, the only children receiving implants are those whose families can navigate the system or pay privately,” says Dr Noxolo Gqada, Strategy Lead for the Hold My Hand Accelerator for Children and Teens. “Every child deserves the chance to hear their name, sing a song, or laugh with their friends. We want to give children and families the right to choose with full information provided, early enough to make a real difference.”
What Hold My Hand wants:
On Monday 29 September at 3pm, Hold My Hand in collaboration with Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and Side-By-Side are hosting a webinar titled: "Little Ears, Big Futures: Newborn Hearing Awareness". This 60-minute Zoom webinar will feature the lived experiences of children with hearing loss and their caregivers, along with providing insights from leading health professionals to highlight the importance of early hearing detection and intervention, particularly universal newborn hearing screening.
Guided by the draft National Strategy to Accelerate Action for Children (NSAAC) which is led by the Presidency, the Hold My Hand campaign is a growing movement committed to putting children and teens at the heart of change. It calls on adults to walk alongside children and teens, to hold their hands, listen to their truths, and act together to build a safer, fairer, stronger South Africa.
Webinar
29 September 2025
15:00–16:00
Hosted by Dr Noxolo Gqada
Register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_mBPgqKHWTyKQJ4Njv6gTSQ
1 High Hopes Vision. https://www.hihopes.co.za/ accessed 27 May 2024.
2 Swanepoel, DW, Störbeck, C & Friedland, P. 2009. Early hearing detection and intervention in South Africa. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology. 73(6):783–786. doi.org/10.1016/j.ijporl.2009.01.007
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