MONTREAL, March 13, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- World Wide Hearing, a Quebec-based non-profit organization that provides access to affordable hearing aids to children and youth in developing countries and underserved communities, is one of the 10 finalists competing for a $750,000 grant in the 2017 edition of Google.org Impact Challenge | Canada.
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World Wide Hearing is developing a ground-breaking technology platform to address hearing loss: the Teleaudiology Cloud, a turnkey solution consisting of an open-access, cloud-based hearing loss platform. The Teleaudiology Cloud will enable audiologists and speech therapists to provide remote diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation for hearing loss to children and youth within countries and across countries. The solution is tailored specifically to remote communities with limited or unreliable internet connectivity. Parents of children with hearing loss will also benefit from the technology as they will receive counselling, education and access to online peer groups.
“We are very excited to have made it to the finals of the Google.org Global Impact Challenge | Canada and to have brought this project one step closer to execution,” said Audra Renyi, Executive Director of World Wide Hearing. “Our project aims to connect children, parents and practitioners throughout the world to lift children with hearing loss out of social isolation and poverty.”
In the first two years of the project, the non-profit organization will work with its existing partners to connect to the platform children and schools in Indigenous communities in Canada, Peru, Guatemala and the Philippines.
“It’s not every day that you get a chance to make the world a better place on such a significant scale,” explains Sam Sebastian, VP, Google and Country Director, Canada. “We were bowled over by the response to this challenge - more than 900 non-profits from coast to coast to coast shared their best ideas with us, and the ten projects selected as finalists are the best of the best.”
“We need public support to win and every vote matters,” said Audra. “The Teleaudiology Cloud will change lives and create global impact. A vote for World Wide Hearing is a vote for humanity.”
Voting for the 2017 Google.org Impact Challenge | Canada runs from March 6 to March 28. The ten finalists will pitch their projects to a panel of judges at a closing event on March 30, 2017. A total of five winners will be chosen: four selected by the panel of judges and one winner chosen by public vote. The winners will receive up to $750,000 in grant funding and technical assistance from Google.org and the LEAP Centre for Social Impact.
To support World Wide Hearing, visit the contest website and vote now. For updates follow World Wide Hearing on Facebook and Twitter.
Hearing loss facts and stats
There are 1.3 billion people with hearing loss, of whom 360 million have disabling hearing loss. 80% of all people with hearing loss live in developing countries and in remote, hard-to-reach places. In many low-income countries there are few audiologists. In some countries, such as Honduras, there are none at all. Over 100 million children with hearing loss have limited or no access to audiology, speech therapy and rehabilitation. In the Inuit territory of Nunavut, Canada, there is only one full-time audiologist for a population living over a vast geographical expanse, despite having some of the highest rates of child hearing loss in the world.
About World Wide Hearing
World Wide Hearing Foundation International (“World Wide Hearing”) is a non-profit organization headquartered in Montreal that provides access to affordable hearing aids and services to children and youth in developing countries and underserved communities. Visit http://www.wwhearing.org/ to find out more about our projects and how we work with communities around the world.
About Google.org
Google.org is Google’s philanthropic arm that provides grants and support to non-profits. Google.org powers the Impact Challenges in regions around the globe. Visit google.org to learn more.