The Audiology Development Foundation of China (ADFC) is
collecting donations to treat deaf children.
The year-long campaign, which begins this month, will raise
funds by selling 30,000 boxes of superior Pu'er tea, a famous tea
produced in southwest China's Yunnan Province.
The money collected will be used to buy audiophones for deaf
children in China and provide them with basic language
training.
Liang Tao, ADFC vice chairman, said language training for deaf
people should begin when they are 2 to 3.5 years old. It's
difficult for deaf children older than six to begin to learn a
language.
If deaf children do not get immediate treatment, many of them
will become dumb as they get older and become permanently
deaf-and-dumb.
"In the impoverished rural areas of China, 70 percent of
families that have deaf children cannot afford the treatment and
lose a golden opportunity to help them," Liang said.
According to statistics, there are about 20 million people in
China with a hearing disability, accounting for 34 percent of the
disabled. Two million are under 14 years old and some 800,000 are
under six.
The figure is increasing by 30,000 each year due to hereditary
diseases, drug abuse and environmental pollution.
China has taken measures to help deaf children. About 220,000
deaf children under seven years old had received language training
up to 2004, and 20 percent of them have been admitted by ordinary
kindergartens and primary schools.
People who want to make a donation can call Beijing
8610-6489-0942.
(Xinhua News Agency December 6, 2006)