The Southern Cochlear Implant Programme congratulates its chair David Kent MNZM for being honoured as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Year Honours 2025 for his services to the Deaf and hard of hearing community.

Mr Kent is 75 and has been Deaf since his mid-20s. He lives in Kirwee, west of Christchurch. His life was transformed when hearing was restored to one ear after his first cochlear implant in 1998. He received a second implant in his other ear in 2011.

He is respected due to decades of volunteering advocacy work focused on equality and equity for the Deaf and hard of hearing community. Currently he is Chair of the Southern Hearing Charitable Trust (SHCT), which manages the Southern Cochlear Implant Programme (SCIP), and he has served on the board since 2003. He is a Board Member of the National Foundation for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, having completed terms as Chair, Deputy Chair and Council Chair during his 12 years’ service. Since 2017 he has been a Board Member of ABLE – Making media accessible and he had been a part of the Captioning Working Group prior to that appointment.

Mr Kent initially became involved with the SHCT when he himself became a recipient of cochlear implants. He recognised that the funding for this remarkable life-changing technology was extremely limited. He has made it his life’s work to see that this inequity was overcome. Currently, 60 adults per year in SCIP’s region are being implanted through Government funding.

“It is wonderful and unexpected, but this recognition is about the hearing sector and not my individual efforts,” Mr Kent says.

“There are so many people in our community who have hearing difficulties – I urge them to seek help from an audiologist in case this amazing technology can re-introduce them to the hearing world,” he says.

Mr Kent funded bilateral cochlear implants for himself without any contribution from the public cochlear implant programmes and has selflessly dedicated time and energy to the Deaf and hard of hearing community for many years.

His commitment to this sector can be measured by the following achievements:

• Campaigning for greater increase in captioning for free to air television and digital media. • Involved in the development of a Public Health Programme aimed at driving systematic change in the hearing health sector, with a particular focus on early intervention, healthy aging and reducing inequities that exist for our Māori and Pacifica populations.

• Uniting the hearing sector nationally to collaborate to support the Public Health Programme and its shared vision.

• Providing regular input and advice on services and programmes to ensure they are fit for purpose.

© Scoop Media