Thursday, January 26, 2006
Polar & Solar
Last night, Kevin and I watched The Polar Express. I have to tell you that I loved the animation. The storyplot was pretty good as well.
I agree that the spirit of Christmas is always in your heart. So, don't ever lose that magical feeling!
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I was reading Amanita's blog when I came across an article about solar-powered hearing aids.
These solar-powered hearing aids are made by an African (Botswana) company, Godisa Technologies. It's the only hearing aid manufacturer in Africa. Their goal is to make low-cost hearing aids for the developing worlds. This solar-powered hearing aid was specifically developed for the sub-Saharan environment.
Oh, by the way, this company also previously made a solar-powered battery recharger as well as rechargeable hearing aid batteries, No. 13 and 675.
Anyways, Godisa wants to make the hearing aids free to everyone. That is, if the goverment lets them. Until then, they are accepting donations so that African Deaf children can get them.
I found it interesting that they were able to tell us that a quarter of a billion people, around the world, are "hearing impaired" (the other link says 200 million). The article said that 2/3 of deaf people that cannot afford hearing aids are in the industrialized countries. The reason being is that they cannot afford hearing aid batteries. I thought this was interesting because you can go to CVS and buy a pack of 8 batteries for about 6 bucks. Thanks to digital hearing aids, battery life is longer. I usually don't replace a battery until 2 or 3 weeks later. So, 2 x 8 will last me 16 weeks for one pack, at least.
Anyways, one positive thing about Godisa is that they're for the empowerment of the deaf. Of the 14 employees there, 10 of them are deaf or physically disabled. What's even more interesting is that they're the only hearing aid company in the world where deaf people are involved in the manufacturing process. And this is in a developing country...wow!
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I agree that the spirit of Christmas is always in your heart. So, don't ever lose that magical feeling!
*****
I was reading Amanita's blog when I came across an article about solar-powered hearing aids.
These solar-powered hearing aids are made by an African (Botswana) company, Godisa Technologies. It's the only hearing aid manufacturer in Africa. Their goal is to make low-cost hearing aids for the developing worlds. This solar-powered hearing aid was specifically developed for the sub-Saharan environment.
Oh, by the way, this company also previously made a solar-powered battery recharger as well as rechargeable hearing aid batteries, No. 13 and 675.
Anyways, Godisa wants to make the hearing aids free to everyone. That is, if the goverment lets them. Until then, they are accepting donations so that African Deaf children can get them.
I found it interesting that they were able to tell us that a quarter of a billion people, around the world, are "hearing impaired" (the other link says 200 million). The article said that 2/3 of deaf people that cannot afford hearing aids are in the industrialized countries. The reason being is that they cannot afford hearing aid batteries. I thought this was interesting because you can go to CVS and buy a pack of 8 batteries for about 6 bucks. Thanks to digital hearing aids, battery life is longer. I usually don't replace a battery until 2 or 3 weeks later. So, 2 x 8 will last me 16 weeks for one pack, at least.
Anyways, one positive thing about Godisa is that they're for the empowerment of the deaf. Of the 14 employees there, 10 of them are deaf or physically disabled. What's even more interesting is that they're the only hearing aid company in the world where deaf people are involved in the manufacturing process. And this is in a developing country...wow!
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