FIRST CLINICAL AUDIOLOGIST OF EAST JAVA
December 2019Miss Syahani Rahmawati has the distinction of becoming East Java’s first clinical audiologist.
HearingAID-East Java scholar Miss Rahmawati recently completed the Master of Clinical Audiology program at the University of Western Australia. A psychology alumnus of Airlangga University, Surabaya, Miss Rahmawati was the recipient of the one-off scholarship which provided full tuition, living and travel expenses, part-funded by the WA Government. Valued at $130,000 this is HAEJ’s most significant gift to the Province in its 30-year history.
It has been a prime objective of the HearingAID-East Java project to support the training of a local clinical audiologist. This role is critical to developing services for the hearing-impaired and deaf in the Province, and to support the Resource Centres previously established with WA-trained nurses and teachers. Also, to be part of a team that it is hoped, will establish courses in audiology based at Airlangga University in the future.
Originally from Sidoarjo in East Java, Miss Rahmawati rose to the challenge of studying in a foreign country and in a second language. While undertaking the course in Perth, she took part in meetings of the HAEJ committee, functions at the Indonesian Consulate General in Perth and enjoyed sightseeing and engaging in the local WA lifestyle. HearingAID-East Java commends her for successfully completing the course and her clinical placements, with her topical thesis: A Review of the Hearing Services and Needs in East Java.
As the first overseas-trained clinical audiologist in East Java, Miss Rahmawati can play a vital role in bringing awareness of the need for hearing services, and how best these can be offered in the future.
East Java Provincial Government supports in principle the advancement of hearing services in East Java. And with the new clinical audiologist in place, critically needed services are a major step closer to being realised.
