The deaf shall hear, the blind shall see�
Under the diligent and able leadership of Mr Abdur Rashid Chowdhury, senior most audiologist, the Bangladesh Hearing Solutions and Habilitation Centre has emerged as a specialized centre to cater the needs of patients with hearing and speaking derangements. Mr. Chowdhury is also helped and cooperated by Kaniz Fatema, chief audiologist in this noble venture of Bangladesh Hearing Solutions and Habilitation Centre. Patients with such difficulties are at the extremes of age. The patients who are older present with varying degrees of hearing loss while pediatric patients present with congenital problems which may cripple them for life if interventions are not initiated from childhood.
Located in Green Road, Dhaka, the journey for Bangladesh Hearing Solutions and Habilitation Centre started in one of the more humble corners of the country. Dupchanchia Disabled Development Society [DDDS] became functional in 2010 under the watchful guidance and leadership of Mr Abdur Rashid Chowdhury. The first office of DDDS started, as the name suggests in Dupchanchia Bogra, where Mr Abdur Rashid and Farzana Chowdhury Shompa (Founder and Chairperson DDDS and BHSHC) provided speech therapy and helped children with hearing loss with high tech hearing enhancements. The students at DDDS were provided speech therapy for a meager 500 taka a month and children who came from humble backgrounds were helped without any charge. The response of patients and their parents in Bogra was so overwhelming and gratifying that within some months quite a few of these children were able to make comprehensible sounds, recognize some alphabets and call out to their parents. For families who had lost all hope, progress of this nature could not be fathomed; the joy of hearing maa or baba for the very first time from their 8 or 10 year old child transcended beyond all the pain and sadness life could throw at them.
What inspired Mr Rashids to do more for disabled children is a heart warming tail indeed. During Mr Rashids days as a house tutor in Bogra, one of his students brothers had a severe hearing and speech impediment. This child received speech therapy at the Srobon Protibondhi School and over the years his condition improved significantly. This childs skills and abilities to later lead a socially fulfilling life rejuvenated Mr Abdur Rashid Khan to leave everything behind and dedicate his life for the betterment of these children and their families. DDDSs journey began in a rented house in Dupchanchia but the organizations success without any help from the state has surpassed all expectations.
Bangladesh Hearing Solutions and Habilitations Centre is now fully operational in Dhaka city and it specializes in providing speech and language development therapy. Cochlear implants aimed at improving hearing abilities often require customized adjustments to fit individual patients. The Dhaka office is well equipped to do custom jobs for the individual patient and so much more. A handful of children are already receiving speech therapy under the loving patronage of the staff of Bangladesh Hearing Solutions.
Wherever love and hope work alongside each other, the Almighty always works his miracle in his own time.
Dr Wrishi Raphael
