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"You’re One of Us!" – a Camp for Kids with Hearing Problems
July 2, 2014
From 27-29 June 2014, for the second year in a row, a summer camp was held in Carnikava that attracted families from all over Latvia, whose children have received digital hearing aids presented by the ABLV Charitable Foundation.
The camp was attended by 30 families from all over Latvia and 98 participants in total. This year, we were particularly pleased that more fathers attended the camp than last year, as well as, of course, brothers, sisters and grandparents. Interesting activities were organised by “Palīdzēsim.lv”, whose work allowed parents to relax and draw inspiration with which to tackle future challenges, and kids to spend time together playing games that were not only full of adventure, but also great fun. In the three day programme, both adults and kids had the chance to have fun trying out Nordic walking and movements, a night-time adventure trail, moulding clay, the magic of sand cinema and many other activities, which encouraged families to spend time engaged in joint pastimes.
Just like last year, this year parents received a lot of valuable advice about using hearing aids and working with children with hearing problems from Sanda Kušķe, the Head of the Latvian Children’s Hearing Centre. In turn, Rasma Pīpiķe, Director of the Latvian Civic Alliance and the parents of the kids at the camp discussed the possibility of setting up an organisation to represent the interests of kids with hearing problems in society. This year, for the first time, the camp was visited by Jana Strogonova, who during the course of active work with the kids’ parents, conducted individual and group discussions about social and financial skills. One of the insights that parents got from their time in the company of Jana Strogonova was the ability to understand the nature of wants and needs in life and the necessity to differentiate between the two. Thanks to the camp, an idea has been born of an organisation that will jointly defend the interests of children with impaired hearing and encourage their development and integration into society.
ABLV Charitable Foundation is happy for kids whose lives have clearly improved thanks to the funds donated by ABLV Bank’s employees and clients that were used to buy digital hearing aids. In the kids’ activities in camp, we saw why it’s necessary to use quality hearing aids, which provide kids with hearing problems with the opportunity to fit into the environment of children with normal hearing, thus providing them with the chance to study in general education schools, to sing, play sports, dance and develop, in so doing realising their full potential.