Project Lead(s): Audra Renyi
earAccess is a Canadian for-profit social enterprise that provides access to hearing devices in low- and middle-income settings at a 50-70% discount from market rates.
This project was first funded through Grand Challenges Canada’s Stars in Global Health program. The pilot project was implemented in Jordan using self-fitting, inexpensive hearing aids manufactured for the specific needs of World Wide Hearing (WWH) (see https://www.grandchallenges.ca/grantee-stars/0108-01/)
The project received their first $1 million CDN in transition to scale funding from Grand Challenges Canada to improve access to affordable hearing aids for 2,240 individuals in Guatemala and Kenya by 2017, by scaling up its model (see https://www.grandchallenges.ca/grantee-stars/0711-05/).
With this follow-on funding of $500,000 CDN, earAccess will leverage their experience and innovative service model to rollout a holistic solution to provide hearing services for children under 5 years of age in Philippines. Their solution will address the three systemic barriers that prevent children from receiving hearing services: (i) caregivers’ unfamiliarity with hearing risk factors and services (ii) inaccessibility of services (iii) prohibitive costs of hearing aids.