Church helps bird guide with hearing

KINGSTON – “I will again hear those sweet voices from nature. I will be able to hear my birds in the forests.”

With those words, Ugandan bird guide Ibrahim Senfuma greeted the news that St. Andrew, Sharbot Lake in the Diocese of Ontario had raised enough funds for him to purchase 24-channel hearing aids and thus work again as a bird guide.

After a few delays, the funds were transferred from Canada to a hearing clinic in the town of Mukono in Uganda, where a doctor had been working with Mr. Senfuma to find the best hearing aids to pick up bird calls. In early June, Mr. Senfuma was fitted with the aids and, after adjusting to them, decided to try birding. “Today I went birding in the forest,” he wrote. “It was superb. I heard birds everywhere around me. It really works. I heard my birds again.”

St. Andrew’s “Help Ibrah to Hear the Birds Again” fundraiser was a success. Donations came in from as far away as Quebec, B.C. and New Zealand.

“Thanks to you all, Ibrah’s livelihood is now secure and he has received the aids in time for the main Ugandan tourist season, starting in June,” wrote a member of the fundraising team.

Dialogue