March is Hearing Awareness Month
Hearing Awareness Month (and World Hearing Day on 3rd March) is all about putting a spotlight on hearing health and raising awareness for the experiences of 880,000+ New Zealanders who are deaf or hard of hearing.
A big focus for the month is making listening safe. 1 in 5 young people globally now have a disabling hearing loss. This number is expected to double over the next 30 years if we do nothing.
Our ears are more fragile than many of us realise. Often young people don't know they are permanently damaging their hearing until it's too late. This is due to listening to personal devices on headphones for too long and too loudly. Sadly, once your hearing is gone it's gone for good.
Even a mild hearing loss can have life-long impacts on education, social well-being and mental health. This is your opportunity to share how important it is to look after your ears.
Find out more about Hearing Awareness Month (National Foundation for Deaf and Hard of Hearing).
Welcome to Waka Toa Ora
Waka Toa Ora is a Canterbury DHB-led inter-sectoral collaborative partnership in the Canterbury region. The partnership is based on the WHO Healthy Cities model, and was previously known as Healthy Christchurch.
The key theme of initiative is that all sectors and groups have a role to play in creating a healthy Canterbury, whatever their specific focus (recreation, employment, youth, environmental enhancement, transport, housing or another aspect of health or wellbeing).
This inter-sectoral initiative fosters collaboration between organisations who have signed the Waka Toa Ora Charter.
Read the Waka Toa Ora Charter - updated July 2019.
The new name Waka Toa Ora communicates that we are all in a waka together. We are rowing in the same direction and navigating the many dimensions of wellbeing (physical, social, spiritual, and mental and emotional — hau ora, wai ora, mauri ora, toi ora). We are stronger navigating the regional landscape together.
There are currently over 200 charter signatories to the Waka Toa Ora Charter, including government agencies, businesses, voluntary sector groups, networks and residents’ associations. The organisations involved reflect a diverse focus and cover many aspects of health and wellbeing.
