Quota International Clubs and Districts in the U.S.A. and Australia offered updates during the Quota convention on their successful efforts to lobby for Universal Hearing Screening in their states.

• Past District 1 Governor Kelly Palmer (right) shared the story of her district's effort to mandate Infant Hearing Screening in West Virginia, U.S.A. An all-out lobbying effort and letter-writing campaign led by Quota clubs throughout the state convinced lawmakers to enact legislation requiring all infants to be screened before leaving the hospital after birth.

The District didn't rest on their mountain laurels, but immediately got to work on materials to inform the public about the new law. The district funded the production and distribution of posters to health care centers throughout the state and created and produced an informative magnet for parents about hearing screening.

• District 6 in Ohio, U.S.A., presented an excellent video program about their effort to mandate infant hearing screening in their state. A bill was signed into law in 2002 in Massillon because of the Massillon Quota club's leadership in writing the bill and lobbying for its passage with the help of other clubs in the district.

What's more: the club received an excellence award during convention for a program that grew out of their infant hearing screening efforts. Screening procedures identified children with hearing loss, some whose families couldn't afford hearing aids and treatment. The Massillon club, in a program called Sound Beginnings, now provides medical care and equipment for children in need.

Copies of the video are available for loan from the Quota
International Office in Washington, D.C. (contact ingrid@quota.org) and Australia (contact berisp@worldoptions.com.au).

• More details to come on this story, but a Quota scholar in Australia has developed a way to screen infant hearing with a telephone and a computer. The scholar has traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, to present her findings, supported by a South Pacific Area Quota scholarship.