Malawi is a nation situated in south eastern Africa and is unfortunately one of the poorest nations in the world. Prior to 2007, there were no speech-language pathologists or audiologists working or volunteering in all of Malawi! That changed with initiative and determination of Victor Musowa. In 2006, Victor came to Canada from Malawi to obtain his Communicative Disorders Assistant (CDA) diploma at Georgian College in Ontario. After successfully completing his diploma, Victor returned to his homeland to work as the country’s first professionally trained Communicative Disorders Technician. However, being the only Communications Disorders professional in a country of 12 million people is no easy task, and Victor’s centre alone serviced 2000 children with special needs. So in early 2009, Victor wrote to the International Centre for Disability and Rehabilitation (ICDR) for help. There were so many children in need of properly fitted hearing aids in Malawi, but the resources to do so weren’t available. Victor wanted to set up a facility to create ear molds which would provide an accurate fit for hearing aids in the Children’s Rehabilitation Centre in Blantyre, Malawi. As a part of our ongoing collaboration with ICDR, we at Hear2Speak wanted to help make this happen, and we did!

In September of 2009, Hear2Speak initiated a fund-raising campaign on Facebook to spread awareness and collect funds to set up the centre. In order to reduce unnecessary shipping expenses that would have resulted from purchasing and delivering the equipment overseas to Malawi, we decided to raise funds for the equipment to be bought locally. . Our goal was to raise seven hundred dollars to cover the costs of the equipment and the money wire transfer fees. However, through the generous support of our donors, we were able to raise over twelve hundred dollars for ICDR and the hearing aid ear mould-making centre in Malawi!