According to the World Health Organization:
Hearing loss is the fourth highest cause of disability globally....
It is estimated that over 5% of the world's population has disabling hearing loss, currently (2018) more than 466 million people globally... [and] that number is expected to grow to over 900 million by 2050.
Disabling hearing loss" is defined as hearing loss greater than 40 dB in the better ear for adults, and 30 dB in the better ear for children.
But for the purpose of this site, we are concerned with severe to profound hearing loss or deafness. People with severe hearing loss cannot hear speech at a conversational level.
People with profound hearing loss are truly locked in silence: even very loud sounds are felt (not heard) if at all, as mere vibrations on their skin.
Because of the safety of short, single electrode cochlear implants, we think they will eventually be seen as an appropriate treatment for many if not all who have severe, not just profound, hearing loss.
According to the article Global and Regional Hearing Impairment Prevalence: An Analysis of 42 Studies in 29 Countries
(found here), as many to 1.4% of the world’s population have severe or profound hearing loss. That would mean that up to 110 million people are afflicted with that degree of disability, and of these, 30 million would be children. By 2050, the number of those children will be 60 million.
Your donation can help the world address the needs of these children.