This project now running for more than 20 years is bringing education to deaf children in Surabaya, Indonesia.
The Rotary East Java Hearing Project is a joint project of the Rotary Clubs of Cambridge, Mount Lawley and Surabaya (East Java, Indonesia).
The project began in 1996 by focussing on improving medical treatment and early intervention help for deaf children in Surabaya, centred initially on the Dr Soetomo Hospital and Karya Mulia School for the Deaf. The first stage was led jointly by the Rotary Clubs of Surabaya and Cambridge with a Rotary International Matching Humanitarian Grant. The project was progressively linked with and helped by Sister State relationships between East Java and Western Australia in existence since 1990.
During and subsequent to the first phase of the project, Rotary collaborated with HearingAid-East Java, a private organisation in WA also providing support to Karya Mulia School and other Hearing Centres in East Java.
In 2014, the Rotary Clubs of Cambridge, Mount Lawley and Surabaya supported the purchase of an audiometer for use in early testing and intervention.
In 2017, the group commenced the current phase of the Teacher Exchange Project. Surabaya teachers of children with hearing disabilities are gaining new and added skills through a 5-year programme. Teachers are selected annually for specialist training by the Telethon Speech and Hearing and by the West Australian Department of Education in Perth. Returning to Surabaya, interns collaborate with experts in Perth to bring further training for fellow teachers in Surabaya. In each year, two teachers from Surabaya have visited Perth and two Perth teachers have travelled to Surabaya. Over the duration of the project, the increasing collegiate cohort of trained interns will share, expand and spread new skills in mentoring children and parents.Karya Mulia School for the Deaf is located in Surabaya, East Java. It is the biggest School for the Deaf in the Province which has a population of some 39 million people. There are 200 students enrolled at Karya Mulia School, ranging in age from 4 to 18 years.