Kilimanjaro mission: (From left) Yeoh, Aubry Rahim, Tengku Amir Shah, Tengku Ezrique Ezzuddean and Syed Haizam in Tanzania.
KLANG: Many children with hearing impairment spend their entire lives in a silent world due to their parents’ inability to afford treatment for them.
In view of this, several members of the Selangor royal family have made an effort to raise funds for these children from needy families by taking up the challenge to scale Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest single free-standing mountain in the world at a height of 5,895m above sea level.
Led by Selangor Raja Muda Tengku Amir Shah Sultan Sharafuddin, the royal team comprises his brother-in-law Datuk Aubry Rahim Mennesson, cousins Datuk Syed Haizam Hishamuddin Putra Jamalullail and Tengku Ezrique Ezzuddean Tengku Ardy Esfandiari.Joining them is a friend, Keong Yeen Yeoh.
The group started their adventure on Aug 31 and is expected to complete the mission by Sept 11.
The funds collected will be used to set up a speech and hearing centre at Raja Tun Uda Library here.
Besides helping families with hearing-impaired children, the centre will also function as a conduit to empower hearing-impaired people.
Syed Haizam expressed concern over the financial difficulties that families with hearing-impaired children may face due to the significant cost they have to bear.
“My daughter was diagnosed with hearing impairment at the age of three, and she underwent cochlear implant surgery at the age of four.
“I realised that the cost of treatment can be a barrier to many in Malaysia,’’ he added.
He said the to-be-set-up speech and hearing centre would offer free hearing tests and subsidise follow-up treatments for those in need.
On their Tanzania mission, Syed Haizam said the idea to scale Mount Kilimanjaro came about from their experience climbing Mount Kinabalu in 2012 with 23 disabled children from Cheshire Home.
“After that task, the Raja Muda and I discussed what our next adventure would be, and we chose Kilimanjaro,” he added.
Those who wish to support this cause can contribute via bank transfer to the Affin Islamic Bank account (No: 1059 9003 9549) of Yayasan Perpustakaan Raja Tun Uda (Swift Code: AIBBMYKL).
Those who want to contribute could also do so through https://www.simplygiving.com/speech-and-hearing-aid-centre-yprtu
