Proud grandmothers Mereina Ruta, left, and Jody Malam with cochlear implant recipient Keshia Uele. Photo / Michael Craig
Proud grandmothers Mereina Ruta, left, and Jody Malam with cochlear implant recipient Keshia Uele. Photo / Michael Craig
An $8-million state-of-the-art centre to help deaf people learn to speak and hear - New Zealand's first - will be finished in the coming weeks after hitting a snag thanks to Auckland's volcanic rock.
The facility, which features therapy rooms, audiology booths, community meeting rooms and a sensoryintegration room, has been a much anticipated redevelopment project for deaf charity, the Hearing House.
The charity helps children learn to speak and hear using hearing aids and cochlear implants, and the new centre at One Tree Hill's Campbell Rd has been purpose-built to cope with growing demand for the charity's services.
It will also be home to a research centre in partnership with Auckland University and in the new year will start welcoming deaf adults to its programmes.
Construction began in July last year but ran into trouble after builders discovered a substantial amount of volcanic rock on the site's foundation.
Chief executive Scott Johnston said it took three months for the rock to be chipped out, costing an extra $350,000. Once the rock was removed they had to fill the area with gravel - 36 trucks' worth, to be exact.
The centre is on track to be finished in November and staff are looking forward to using it.
"It's been a project that started five years ago when we were literally sitting on top of each other because we'd run out of room because we had so many clients," Johnston said.
Keshia Uele, 9, who received cochlear implants when she was a young child. 28 September 2017 New Zealand Herald photograph by Michael Craig
Sunnyvale Primary School pupil Keshia Uele is looking forward to catching up with friends at the new centre.
The charity touts Keshia as one of its success stories - the 9-year-old was once quiet and reserved but is now competing in speech competitions, doing well at school and dreams of being a scientist.
Keshia's grandparents, Jody Malam and Mereina Ruta, are thrilled, and credit the Hearing House with opening up a new world of opportunity for Keshia with the help of two cochlear implants.
Now they appreciate the simple joy of being able to speak to Keshia, to read to her, or to have her read to them.
The charity's speech therapists coached Keshia on how to use the implants, essentially teaching her how to speak, while also showing Ruta and Malam exercises the trio could do at home.
The grandparents first noticed Keshia's difficulties when she was just a baby, sensing she was uninterested in toys and television.
One day burning toast tripped a fire alarm in the family's home and Keshia barely blinked, Malam says.
It took some "fighting" with doctors to finally get a diagnosis that Keshia was profoundly deaf but, after discovering the Hearing House, Keshia's world had changed.
At first she dabbled with hearing aids, and then had one cochlear device implanted, but her speech was still slow. The turnaround came after getting a second implant.
