About Us
I qualified in 1998 with a dual degree in Speech therapy and Audiology from the University of Stellenbosch. I am registered with the health professions council of South Africa.
Career
I started off my professional career in private practice in Somerset West, Paarl and Stellenbosch in a wonderful practice where I learned the importance of team work and also the joy of helping patients enhance their hearing to make communication with loved ones possible. After this I spent 6 years with one of the largest hearing aid companies as their Specialist Corporate Audiologist where I was tasked in training audiologists all over South Africa on their products. This also included assisting audiologists with difficult and problematic fittings. In 2012 I joined a partner in Durbanville where I was in private practice until 2021 when I had the opportunity to come back to Worcester where I spent a happy few years as a child. In the past 23 years I have been privileged to see the development of hearing aids from basic amplifiers to advanced computer technology to assist my clients to connect to their world and their families.
Hearing and helping patients is my passion and after seeing my grandfather suffer with hearing loss for years with very basic technology and the difficulties he endured with basic communication, I feel the same sadness when I see families disconnect due to hearing loss. Hearing aid technology enables me to help reestablish the connection for families.
Carien De Jager
Mariëtte Dunn
My name is Mariëtte Dunn. I’ve been married for 10 years to a wonderful husband and I have two wonderful daughters. My husband is deaf, I also have two deaf cousins which is how I have gotten involved in the deaf community. We moved to Worcester after I finished high school where my mother worked at the then library / information centre at NID after that she worked at Shalom which is the old age home on the De la Bat premises. That time we all stayed on the grounds and I helped out in the home once or twice.
There were carers that also worked there that were students at NID which is where I started to learn sign language. I also attended De la Bat Family Church where the main language is sign language, that further helped me to communicate and practice my signing. I lived there for about 2 years when I met my husband and then we were married 2 years after that.
I found how difficult it is for a person who is deaf or hard of hearing in a community where many people are mainly hearing and how isolated they can feel. Even when they are considered in a conversation… when everybody speaks at once they become lost. Hearing aids help a lot, it opens up a world that they wouldn’t otherwise would have had access to.
Even when very deaf or born deaf hearing aids can sometimes give you that little bit of sound that prevents total isolation or feeling like you are in this completely silent void. This is why I enjoy my work. I enjoy helping people feel a bit more connected in a community and society where it is so very easy to get lost in.
Address
30 Russel street, Worcester, 6850
Call Us
023 347 4176
Email Us
worcester.audio@gmail.com