The International Humanitarian Hearing Aid Purchasing Program has its primary goal of creating accessibility to hearing aids for humanitarians who support hearing health care across the globe in low resource settings. These devices are provided to qualified Humanitarian Programs and Not For Profit Organizations with long-term relationships to their clients in the countries being served. IHHAPP is currently administered by Mayflower Medical Outreach (a not for profit NGO) and has the support of the Coalition for Global Hearing Health. IHHAPP has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Rotarians for Hearing RAG (Rotarian Action Group). IHHAPP looks forward to working with you towards expanding hearing aid access. At this time, IHHAPP members span the globe providing services in the following countries: Brazil, Cambodia, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Malawi, Mexico, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Romania, Tanzania, Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe.
Coalition for Global Hearing Health
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IHHAPP uses the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI) to determine country eligibility. HDI is a composite statistic of life expectancy, education and per capita income indicators which are used to rank countries into four tiers of human development. Countries ranked as low, medium and high are eligible for participation in the IHHAPP program. Countries ranked as very high are not eligible.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 430 million people have disabling hearing impairment. The vast majority of these individuals live in resource poor countries, where access to audiology services is limited. There is an estimated need for 7 million hearing aids in developing countries yet fewer than 1 million people actually have use of this technology. While the reasons for the paucity of hearing aid fittings are complex, one of the major barriers to providing hearing aids has been their high cost.
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Many individuals and humanitarian organizations work to address this unmet need of providing hearing aid services to low resource environments. The IHHAPP was created to support these programs by making high quality low cost hearing aids available to qualified members. The devices are not to be sold for profit or to compete with existing hearing aid distribution networks. Potential applicants complete an application and provide a signed letter of agreement and reference letters.
The IHHAPP team looks forward to working with you to enhance access to hearing care worldwide.
The hearing aids offered through the IHHAPP are new, low-cost digital behind the ear (BTE) hearing aids that can be adjusted via screw set potentiometers or are software based. Three manufacturers’ hearing aids are available and hearing losses ranging from mild to profound can be accommodated. All hearing aids include a presentation case and user guides. Programming guides are available to support optimized fittings. Please refer to the Products Section for specifics on each manufacturers’ product line.
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