Old Hearing Aids being donated with Dignity!

Old Hearing Aids being donated with Dignity!

Hopefully not quite this old!!

Old Hearing Aids being donated with Dignity!

Well actually, they’re often not really very old at all.  For various reasons, often hearing aids are no longer needed by their first wearer, yet they are still relatively new.  Nearly always whilst they are still perfectly serviceable and could make a massive difference to a child or person’s life. 

Old Hearing Aids being donated with Dignity! Helping others with the help of others!

There are over 500 million deaf people in the world nearly 60 million of them children who don’t have access to hearing aids.  Many children and very young people who have been born without hearing will also never learn to speak.  There are wonderful organisations such as DeafKidz International who do amazing things in the Developing World.  They run incredible pastoral programmes.  They send key personal and train people on the ground to make sure that deaf children in the developing world aren’t exploited.  Such a worthwhile and incredible thing to be doing.  However, working together we can try and give these young people access to hearing via a donated hearing aid.  A great way to help prevent them being exploited is to enable them to hear as much as possible.  To improve their communication skills through the speech ability they will develop following their fitting for hearing aids.

Hearing Aid Recycling (HAR)  working closely with Dignity Funerals.

We’re so grateful to our wonderful partners Dignity Funerals.  They were one of the first organisations to sign up to be collection centres for our Hearing Aid Recycling.  In fact, the National Association of Funeral Directors Annual General Meeting (held at The Celtic Manor Resort in Cardiff) was the first event that Founders Zoe and Gordon went to after the creation of HAR.  Jamie Hawke (Head of the SW Division at Dignity) was the first person to speak to them, on the first day and the first of the Dignity Regions to partner with HAR.  Arranging for his branches to act as collection centres for hearing aid donations.  Here is what Jamie had to say about Hearing Aid Recycling when he signed his branches up.

Jamie Hawke from Dignity says:

“Earlier last year I met an organization at a conference called Hearing Aid Recycling (HAR).

 They collect old hearing aids and recycle them to provide people in less fortunate parts of the world the opportunity to hear.

 It’s something that I felt was a great idea as I remember my granddad had a drawer full of these old devices that just went to waste.

 I’ve been working with Zoe, who is the founder of the scheme, on how we can support the effort across the region.

 I would like each of our branches to be a drop off point for the hearing aids.

 This is a great initiative.”

THANK YOU!

Thank you again Jamie from all of us at HAR for your positivity, support and enthusiasm for what we are trying to do!

Hearing Aid Recycling – It’s working!

I’m going to make much more of a song and dance out of it (when I have time, because it is worth it).  However, we passed the 1500 hearing aids donated mark this week.  Which is truly fantastic news. Thank you everyone who has donated and for each hearing aid that has been dropped off or sent in.

Hearing Aid Collection boxes by the sea – Coast to Coast!

The Dillistone and Wraights branches of Dignity Funerals have even made their own Collection Boxes (pictured blow).  The strong visual cue these present have resulted in lots of donations already.  The Bognor Regis branch has already filled theirs for the first time. Jiffy bags for the safe sending of the aids to HAR have been despatched! We’re really looking forward to receiving this next batch of aids.  More thanks to you guys! 

We’ve been mulling over if we should create collection boxes for a while.  Trying to weigh up if the creation of product in the form of the boxes providing, again, a strong visual cue, will lead to enough extra donations and recovered hearing aids to justify it.  The jury is still out.  We’re going to see if ‘Bognor’s filling a bin triumph’ isn’t a one off.  If the boxes by the sea really do seem to increase the donations then we’ll probably run a wider trial scheme.

Meanwhile, still by the sea….

But at the other end of the country other Dignity branches have been busy receiving aids too!

Johnson Family Funeral Service have also been welcoming kind and generous people who have been able to find a local place to donate aids via our Interactive Map and A-Z County Alphabetical List.  Russell Gadbury from South Shields has been amazing this week.  Not only finding his nearest place but also letting us know he was on his way.  Which meant that Jamie Glenwright and his team were ready and waiting (with their cameras!) to welcome Russell and the hearing aids he was donating.  We don’t know their provenance, only that he may have a few more to donate at some point.  So, thankyou Russell and Jamie and Saqqara Janson (also pictured) for all your help and enthusiasm.  We’ll be sure to do our best to transform a life or two through the gift of better hearing from all your efforts.

Thank you also to The Shields Gazette who featured Hearing Aid Reccyling this week!

So, to round up, we’d like to say another MASSIVE thank you to everyone mentioned in this feature but also to all of the people who have already donated and will hopefully donate hearing aids in the years to come!  We’re always delighted to ‘hear’ from you. If you’d like to get involved, as a collection centre, or via donating, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us here!

Here’s the article!

Great that the Shields Gazette has featured Mr Gadbury’s very kind donation.  You can read the article here!

Or by clicking on this link.

https://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/johnson-family-funeral-directors-become-drop-off-point-for-donated-hearing-aids-4394095