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Despite having an estimated population exceeding 19 million, the impoverished south-east African country of Malawi has fewer audiology clinics and audiologists than the town of Ballarat. However for the past eight years, Ballarat audiologists Peter and Rebecca Bartlett from AudioClinic have been trying to change that.
The couple each have more than 25 years' audiology experience and belong to the Australian Christian aid agency EARS Incorporated, which has a mission to reduce the incidence and impact of hearing impairment through training and equipping local individuals and organisations in developing countries.
In 2010, following the local fundraising campaign Target 10 where sponsored runners completed ten laps of Lake Wendouree (on a dreadfully cold and wet day in July), the Bartletts and their three daughters left Ballarat for Lilongwe Malawi, to work as missionaries at African Bible College (ABC) Community Clinic, and become the first registered audiologists in Malawi.
Over the course of the next six years, with support from York Street Church of Christ, an AusAID Community Grants program and many other donors and volunteers, the ABC Hearing Clinic and Training Centre (HCTC), a ministry of EARS Incorporated, was built, resourced and opened (2013), and students received clinical training in audiology services and outreach.
The Bartletts returned to Ballarat in 2016, but other expatriate audiologists from Australia, the UK and the USA have subsequently supported the work there. The Clinic now boasts seven clinicians, an office manager and an earmould maker, and is only one of two permanent clinics in Malawi. Audiology services, training and outreach are currently provided by these Malawian staff from this Centre of Excellence, which has an international reputation as an effective model for humanitarian audiology. Six of those seven clinicians, and another five students are currently undergoing a degree program in audiology at ABC, so they will receive national accreditation for their clinical competency by 2021.
Peter and Rebecca have returned to Malawi five times in the past two years, their most recent trip in January – February 2019 where Peter lead an outreach team of audiology students and supervisors from the University of Melbourne, to see more than 1000 patients and fit more than 70 hearing aids, with the ABC HCTC staff, in a two week period.
By 2023, with the anticipated graduation of the next intake of audiology students, it is hoped that Malawi will have more audiology clinics and audiologists than Ballarat. By that time, the future of quality ear and hearing healthcare will be well and truly in the hands of passionate, capable, and qualified Malawian audiologists – and Ballarat will have played her part in it.