This month, Sense International (Romania) celebrates 5 years since the inception of the Early Intervention Programme in Romania. It has been a challenging task from the very beginning – January 2007 – when SI(R) started its collaboration with the first maternity unit included in the programme, in Bucharest.
It has been a challenge mainly because, although the hearing screening of babies was part of a National Health Programme, no hospital was in fact testing the babies because they had no devices for doing this. And those very few hospitals which did have such a device did not collect the data and information was lost.
SI(R) was aware of the importance of early identification of sensory impaired babies. By the time they reached kindergarten or school age, entering the Education Programme, teachers had to face challenges and problems which could have been solved, if intervened in time.
„An optimum and efficient hearing screening in newborn babies will allow the early identification (in the first month of life) of permanent bilateral hearing impairments. An objective diagnosis can be given until the age of 3 months, while an adequate therapeutic intervention can be done until the age of 6 months. This way, the child is given the best chances for a normal development.”  Dr. Alexandru Pascu, MD, ENT, Audiologist
In time, the programme expanded covering two more major cities in Romania: Oradea in November 2007 and Timisoara in October 2009. Three screening devices have been donated by SI(R) over the years and 12 medical specialists have been trained in screening techniques.
Almost 37,000 newborn babies from Bucharest, Oradea and Timisoara have had their hearing screened at birth as a result of SI(R) involvement.
Beginning with 2011, through a World Bank programme, all major maternity units in Romania (those having Intensive Care Units) have been equipped with hearing screening devices. SI(R) role, with the support of medical specialists involved in the programme, will no longer be to equip maternities, but rather to collect valuable data and make sure that babies who are identified with sensory impairments receive the proper early intervention services.