Club organized to help hearing, speech problems

CEBU, Philippines — The deaf and those with speech problems are expected to get more help with the Rotary Club of Metro Cebu’s launching of its newest “baby” the Rotary Club of Hearing and Speech today, April 16.

The newly-formed club under RCMC will have its charter presentation and induction of officers and members at the Casino Español de Cebu. RCMC is also the “mother club” of the Rotary Club of Metro Bogo and the Rotary Club of Banilad Metro under Rotary International (RI) District 3860.

The Rotary Club of Hearing and Speech “is a product of the collective pain experienced by parents, siblings, relatives, and professionals of taking care of people having hearing problems, deafness.”

Members of this new club include audiologists and other professionals having diverse specializations in the field of hearing health such as speech-language pathologists, ENT doctors, hoteliers, juris doctors, and medical allied professions. They aim to serve RI District 3860 in improving accessibility to hearing health services and promoting hearing health in the country.

The charter president is Mary Ann Soria, a nurse audiologist with 15 years of experience as a missionary for the deaf working with families and children. Soria has eight years of professional experience abroad.

Soria is also a past president of the Rotary Club of Metro Cebu, Rotary Year 2020-2021, who led the club's hearing projects and Department of Health (DOH)-7’s newborn hearing screening technical adviser,  and cochlear implant audiologist for the Visayas for the national cochlear implant of the University of the Philippines Philippine General Hospital (UPPGH) National Institute of Health.

Angel Jelo Gibas, a clinical audiologist and entrepreneur, on the other hand is the new club’s secretary while the membership chairman is Mon Kalvin Lim, a clinical audiologist at Makati Medical Center who travels to Mindanao to help some patients there.

Charter members include Clare Manlapas, an audiologist who engages in the distributorship of audiological equipment; Ruby Comiling, a speech and language pathologist; Charlene Versoza, a practicing audiologist; Dr. Donna Olandria, the 2023 Hermana Mayor of the Señor Santo Niño Fiesta and a volunteer at the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño de Cebu Medical Clinic.

The Tejam brothers, Cyrus, the pediatrician, and Arthur, the freelance phlebotomist; ENT Dr. Jose Lynetto Matela II; audiologists Frances Jo-an Dabu, Frances Angelica Mallillin, Celeste Celeste, Luielen Llamas, and Abigail Feliciano-Rebulado; speech-language pathologist and audiologist Darla Florendo; media practitioner Flores Gerlie Vestil; hotelier Hannah Franz Pason; and Melmar Jay Jabonero, a juris doctor.

Soria said the new club is open to new members who share the same advocacy and desire to live out the Rotary International motto of Service Above Self.

Gruppo Hearing, PhiliEar, Health World, and Spring Rain Global are supporting the new club’s launch as well as its future projects.

Accordingly, only a few professionals in the Philippines attend to the needs of ear and hearing health care.

In Cebu alone, there are around 20 Ear Nose Throat (ENT) specialists who take care of patients with pathologic problems of the ear.

Fortunately, though, there are audiologists working for free in Cebu City while one travels around Region 7 to provide training on hearing health and services for hearing.

There also are many speech and language pathologists in Central Visayas accordingly but only a handful of them are trained to take care of deaf children who need special care to help them develop towards integration into normal independent living. With this new club, these children with some defects are expected to be given more attention. —/GMR (FREEMAN)