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CE of The National Foundation for the Deaf, Louise Carroll, is challenging all CE’s to support their family members, friends, colleagues and staff who are hard-of-hearing by participating in The National Foundation for the Deaf Silent Leadership Challenge event which is held annually.

“We’re asking corporate and community leaders to experience what it’s like to have a hearing loss, for just an hour on Friday 5 August, 2016.

Carroll, who’s hearing loss is a result of an injury, has been significantly helped by wearing hearing aids. “I vividly recall the day I switched on the hearing aids with remote microphone, I could hear my granddaughter’s voice and was surprised and saddened that I hadn’t been hearing her actual full voice with it’s delightful timbres for all these years.

When you think about it, hearing loss is an invisible disability that often goes unrecognised and is hardly ever talked about. By undertaking the challenge, corporate and community leaders will help us to break the silence around it. From this, we hope that they will gain insights into preventing hearing loss and making the workplace more supportive for employees who are hard- of-hearing. They will lead the social change that people with hearing loss in New Zealand so desperately need”

The event, The Silent Leadership Challenge, will see participants tackle three communication challenges at work and one at home while wearing bright yellow hearing protectors to simulate deafness. The ten minute challenges, to be undertaken on Friday 5 August,  are a one-to-one meeting, a team meeting, a social get-together and watching TV with the family (without captions). Each activity will take less than ten minutes but the impact and social change it creates could be life-long.

The purpose of the Challenge is to raise nationwide awareness and funds for the Foundation’s work to prevent hearing loss and support people with hearing loss or deafness.

To take part, leaders register online at www.silentleadershipchallenge.com and aim to raise funds by seeking sponsorship donations from people in their professional and social networks.

Participants will be sent everything they need to tackle the Challenge, including a set of hearing protectors donated by MSA, The Safety Company. Staff can nominate their CEO as a potential participant by emailing the Foundation at silentleadershipchallenge@nfd.org.nz, or call 0800 867 446.

The money raised will directly support the Foundation’s advocacy, support and prevention work.

Tags: deaf, silent leadership