A fourth-year business student at St. Francis Xavier University says she's on a mission to make hearing accessible for all.
Emma Logan collects used hearing aids and raises awareness about the need to recycle the devices to help others.
Her commitment to the cause is personal; the fourth-year St. F.X. business student is hearing impaired.
She's worn hearing aids most of her life, and had cochlear implant surgery at the age of three.
“It was a year ago that I realized that I had two perfectly working hearing aids at home, that I used to wear but I don't wear anymore due to upgrading to newer technology,” Logan said. “And I thought, ‘how come I still have them,’ and then, like ‘why isn't somebody else wearing them instead?’”
That's why Logan started an initiative that she calls Hearing For All.
There are various groups that collect and recycle the devices, but not everyone knows about them.
“The purpose of my mission is just to increase that awareness,” said Logan. “So, it’s not to compete with them, it’s to join them together and get more people, individuals with hearing aids, aware of the fact that there are those resources to donate their old hearing aids to.”
Logan has placed donation boxes in funeral homes across Nova Scotia, to allow bereaved families to give the gift of hearing to others, who may not be able to afford it.
“Often, when a loved one passes away, the families don't know what to do with the hearing aids that are left behind,” Logan said. “So funeral home directors are now having a conversation with families to give them the option of leaving the hearing aids behind with them that then go to my mission.”
Logan's short term mission is to join forces with a Calgary-based charity to bring hearing aids to Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
It's given her new perspective on what to do after graduation.
“Although my current mission is this trip to the Dominican Republic in April, going forward I want to focus right here at home to help Canadians struggling with hearing loss as well,” she said.
Logan says she's looking forward to making a difference.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Dan MacIntosh.
