Community ear care delivery by community ear assistants and volunteers: a pilot programme.

Hearing impairment is a major public health problem in Nepal. The present service delivery, however, is mainly hospital based and is limited to large towns. Those people residing in rural areas lack many basic needs including ear care services. The collaborative community volunteer-based ear care pilot programme implemented in Banke, Nepal aims to reach out to those rural areas by establishing sustainable primary ear care services, empowering and utilizing local resources. The focus of the programme is to promote multi-sector improvement in sanitation, nutrition, immunization, breast-feeding and timely care and support to ear patients to help prevent hearing impairment mainly from the sequelae of otitis media.