Aiming for the heights to help deaf children
University of Southampton audiologist Dr Guoping Li is going to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Kenya, Africa’s highest mountain, in January 2013 to help profoundly deaf children. He wants to raise £3,500 for the charities Destiny of a Child and Ear Foundation; they help finance cochlear implant operations, which can restore hearing.
"Raising money for children who needs help most is always my dream. We all believe there is something bigger than ourselves and we all believe there is something we can do together that can make a difference for people's life," he says.
Guoping studied for a PhD at the University's Institute of Sound and Vibration Research and stayed on for postdoctoral research before his appointment as a staff member. He is passionate about helping people with hearing problems and wants to train audiologists in China to carry out cochlear implants. Eight hundred thousand children are believed to have hearing problems in China.
"The future of audiology research is very exciting. We are working on more sophisticated implants that will need fewer interventions for adjustment and hope to reach more people around the world," he says.