Nthabiseng Hlongoanne
Nthabiseng is a bright and happy little girl in spite of her
disability and does not have health insurance such as Advantage One Insurance. She is
now 6 years old and tries desperately, but ineffectually to communicate with the world around her as
you can hear from these sound clips
Below is some more information about Thabi, what we need and so on in the form of
a letter written to the radio wish list.
2006 November
Jordan's christmas wish
This letter has been written by my dad on behalf of me – Jordan (5yrs old).
My
wish is very simple and goes out to my best friend Nthabiseng 6yrs old. I know that
this is a big request because we have been through it before when I was 18mnths
old. PLEASE CAN WE SEE IF WE CAN HELP THABI WITH HER MUCH NEEDED COCHLEAR IMPLANTS.
I was born profoundly hearing impaired and with lots of help from lots of great
friends and family, my mom and dad where able to implant me. I spend most of my
play time with Ntabi and we are quiet a pair – just look at us. Thank you for reading
our letter, we hope you can help in some way.
Click here to hear me make my wish
Love Jordan Kate Groenewald XXX
FROM JORDAN’S MOM & DAD (letter written to radio station)
Hi guys we really need your help in getting Jordan’s best friend Ntabi implanted
to allow her a normal life filled with the amazing sounds that we all take for granted.
We realize a total implant is asking for a lot and if it is possible well then this
will be a miracle of its own. What we need to do is to put Nthabi and her family
onto a medical aid, hopefully Discovery Health as they have proven to be brilliant
thought our ordeal with Jordi. We will need enough money to pay the medical aid
for 12 months (roughly R20,000 - $2,801.12 / £1,410.44 / € 2,096.44 for the year ) before they will do her implant. We
will then need a further R54, 000-00 ($7,563.03 / £3,808.18
/ € 5,660.38) in excess of the operation as Discovery will
only cover R100,000-00 for the implant. We are asking for any kind of help at this
stage, anyone that can give us information on maybe a State Hospital doing the operation
– we have heard that the Baragwaneth is doing 10 free implants a year but only for
adults , or maybe someone would want to help us with a couple of months worth of
payments, etc etc…
Ntabi is at a School called Eduplex with our Daughter Jordan. Jordan was implanted
at the age of 18mnth and the second one at three years old – we can not believe
what her Cochlear Implants have done for her. Nthabi’s mom abandoned her at only
two months old and her Dad James has got her this far, with lots of dedication and
with none of the information and help that we had on hand.
Nthabiseng Hlongoanne has to have a Cochlear Implant. She has absolutely no hearing
and is a great candidate for a Cochlear Implant.
She has had hearing aids since
the age of 2 and there is very very little progress. She is taught in English, is
homed in her black language and is amongst Afrikaans speaking children after school
and in after care – only if you have a deaf child will you understand that this
will never work for her – as well as the school not believing in the ‘signing’ method
of teaching she is solely dependant on lip reading in all these different languages.
She is such a character and tries so hard to fit in and to understand what is going
on around her. Her school is brilliant and very supportive but cannot get involved
with fund raising for her for obvious school policies reasons. They have approached
us to help her as we spend a lot of time with her and so we will give it our best
shot.
Eduplex took Nthabi, her Dad and her little brother in, James was given a job and
they were all given a place to stay on the school premises. Nthabi has a bursary
at Eduplex and James pays for his son’s schooling. Just the kind of lucky break
James needed and so deserved. But still they live with nothing and on a salary of
R1, 700 ($238.10 / £119.89 / €178.20) a month. He is a wonderful man and father to his children and tries so hard
all the time to get Nthabi more help – but I think we all know that someone in his
position is not really going to get very far although he has so much will and remains
completely positive.
We have all the documentation you need from Audiologists and so forth so please
let us know if there is anything else we can provide you with. Attached are some
of the documents I have and articles written about them.
Thank you for your time…
Kind regards…
Stephen & Kerry-Lynn Groenewald 082 332 6122/6097
