Princess Lalla Asmaa, President of the Lalla Asmaa Foundation, presided in Rabat on Tuesday over the first Patient Day dedicated to individuals living with deafness and hearing loss — an event marking two decades of the foundation’s engagement with deaf and hard-of-hearing children. The occasion also served as the formal launch of the “Hearing Aid for All” program, designed to make auditory devices free and accessible to Morocco’s most disadvantaged citizens.
The day began with a visit by HRH to the Hôpital des Spécialités in Rabat, where she met children from Morocco, Palestine and other African countries who recently undergone cochlear implant surgery.
Actually, 56 children were welcomed in Rabat alongside their families for cochlear and bone-anchored implantations, as part of the “Together, We Hear Each Other Better” program.
During the visit, two technological advances were presented. The first, ConnectCare, is a system developed by the foundation enabling remote, real-time cochlear implant adjustments through a secure connection, currently benefiting more than 100 implanted children. The second is a dedicated to remote speech therapy application, allowing rehabilitation sessions to proceed with greater regularity — a factor the foundation considers critical to successful language acquisition.
The day culminated in the signing of five cooperation agreements with the Ministry of Solidarity, Social Inclusion and Family; the Mohammed VI foundation for Social Works in Education; and the territorial health groups of Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceima, Rabat-Salé-Kénitra and Casablanca-Settat. Since its NASMAA program launched in 2022, the foundation has carried out cochlear implants for 950 Moroccan children and 368 others from 22 countries worldwide.
The new initiative extends the foundation’s mandate beyond cochlear implantation to all forms of hearing impairment, reflecting King Mohammed VI’s vision of equal opportunity as a concrete, daily reality for every Moroccan citizen regardless of economic circumstance.
