If you’ve got a bright shirt hanging in the closet this October, wear it with pride on the 21st when Loud Shirt Day makes its mark.
The national annual event encourages Australians to trade their business attire for more flamboyant items to help raise crucial funds and awareness for deaf and hearing impaired children.
Funds raised from Loud Shirt Day will go towards ensuring families have access to services to help their child learn to listen and speak, and to attend mainstream schools.
The fundraiser supports NSW-based children’s charity The Shepherd Centre, which provides early intervention services to families of hearing impaired children.
With one in every 1000 Australian babies born deaf, deafness is the most common disability among children in the western world.
Lugarno siblings Levi, 6, and Charlie Helou, 3, have been supported by The Shepherd Centre.
Born with hearing impairments, the brother and sister directly benefit from the service.
Charlie was diagnosed with severe to profound hearing loss at 18 months of age.
She was fitted with bilateral cochlear implants in 2014.
Levi was born with moderate to severe high frequency hearing loss.
Following his diagnosis at age three, he now has a cochlear implant and a hearing aid.