Do More Hear More
Jenny Nesgaard Pedersen and Nicolai Brogaard Pedersen moved permanently from Denmark to Zimbabwe early 2015. Prior to their move quarterly clinics were carried out by them in Harare. They founded a Harare based full-service audiology clinic in 2013. It soon became clear that many of the most vulnerable were unable to access services due to cost and distance. Initially clinic fees and hearing aid costs were waived on a case by case basis, for children aged 18 and below where hearing aids were needed but no funds were available. This was in part made possible using donated devices received from a major hearing aid manufacturer and in part at the personal cost of the clinic owners. These activities saw 600 children and youths tested and managed for free in the Harare clinic by 2018.
That year saw the introduction of outreach clinics in the outskirts of Harare specifically for hearing impaired children from low income families. All children were tested and received new unused donated digital hearing aids suited for their specific hearing loss. Three such clinics have been carried out in the past 12 months. For many the cost of transport to the city was a barrier to accessing the care. In 2019 clinics in the rural areas were added, enabling more children to access the help in their own hometowns and villages. In 2018 work began to formalise a foundation trust to oversee the charitable activities, Hear to Aid was finalised in 2019.
Hear to Aid was formed by Nicolai Pedersen a Danish audiologist and Jenny Nesgaard Pedersen a Zimbabwean-Danish audiologist both permanently based in Harare, Zimbabwe. Their efforts are supported by five international board members.
