A gift of love, music and language

A local medical centre has changed the life of a baby girl who was born deaf, by giving her a gift of hearing.
Little Ahliya Maharaj was born deaf like her sister Tiyasha (5) and at eight months she has never heard the sound of her mother’s voice. Her life now promises a future filled with voices of the people she loves thanks to Ballito Ear Institute (BEI) audiologists, Bronwyn Hein and Bernice Schulze. Hein and Schulze installed Ahliya’s new high powered hearing aid free of charge last week in front of her emotional parents. Her father, Dion said he did not have words to express his gratitude to the BEI for the gift they have given his daughter and family.
“When I wrote a letter to their head office in Pretoria I was not sure they would help us but I am so glad they did because we could not afford the R25 000 for the hearing aid,” said Dion.
He said the family was financially strapped after having spent all their money on Tiyasha’s cochlea implant over a year ago. Tiyasha had a her first cochlea implant procedure done when she was two but it failed a year later which required for it to be replaced.
“My wife (Raksha) and I know for a fact that there are good people in this world because when we did a fund-raising for Tiyasha’s second procedure, people from both the South and North Coast came through for us,” said Dion.
Hein said Ahliya would have to come to their centre on a monthly basis so they could check whether she was benefiting from the hearing aid and adjust the equipment as she grows.
“Because she is a baby she is unable to tell us if she can hear any sounds so we need to keep a close eye on her because if there are no developments she would then need to have a cochlea implant like her sister,” she said.
Both audiologists recommend that a hearing test be done on babies immediately after birth to enable early intervention if the baby is hearing impaired.
“Our goal is to see hearing impaired kids be part of the mainstream society and they can do that if we do the necessary tests and procedures at a young age to allow the child to gain the necessary language skills alongside their peers.”