Annual Report 2005/06 THE WORLD OF SOUND - Sonova

A high level of social commitmentThrough its Phonak and Unitron Hearing Group companies,the Phonak Group is involved in numerous projects to raisegeneral awareness about better hearing and the benefits ofhearing instruments. It also supports a number of social projectsto improve the quality of life for people with hearing impairment,especially children.In 2005/06 Phonak increased the level of financing for theEduplex project. The Eduplex School is a unique educationalprogram, opened by Dr. Nelson Mandela in Pretoria, South Africa,in 2002, providing equipment to ensure that deaf children arefully included in the regular school program. The Eduplex programproves that today’s technology, in combination with an inclusive,language-enabling environment, makes it possible for deafand hearing-impaired children to acquire fluent spoken languageand good academic results. The success of this program can beseen in the lives of talking deaf adults who have achieved theirfull academic potential.Unitron Hearing supports children attending courses at theKidsAbility Centre for Child Development in Cambridge, Ontario(Canada). These courses include therapy sessions attended bythe whole family in which students learn to improve their languageand speech skills through listening.Unitron Hearing is also involved in the Ontario InfantHearing Program. This program conducts hearing tests on over1,000 babies and infants every year, and the families receiveassistance with the difficult task of bringing up small childrenwho suffer from hearing loss.Unitron Hearing also helps fund the China aid campaignrun by the University of Iowa, whose purpose is to supply hearinginstruments to orphans and disadvantaged Chinese childrensuffering from hearing loss and to train medical personnel to fithearing systems.Phonak New Zealand has a project that cares for hearingimpairedchildren in Lautoka School, Fiji. In a five-year programnamed “HearAid project”, Phonak New Zealand is contributingfunds, staff resources, and hearing instruments to the school.Last year, a teacher also received additional training in how toteach deaf pupils. Phonak staff regularly visit the Lautoka Schoolto test children’s hearing and adjust hearing systems.Phonak New Zealand also supports the Federation for DeafChildren and each year awards academic prizes to deaf childrenwho excel at their studies.Phonak Denmark supports the Danish Auditory ProcessingDisorders (APD) Group, providing not only funding but alsoorganizational and administrative assistance. The APD Groupholds seminars and conferences on the topic “Auditory processingand perception disorders”, thus contributing to researchand the exchange of know-how.Phonak Denmark also subsidizes research projects withautistic children. The focus here is on whether the use of sensoryenhancers can effectively improve the exceptionally poorconcentration of these children.We will continue our projects and intensify our contributionto the community in 2006/07 onwards.Sustainability41