A total of 163,000 deaf children have managed to recover their hearing and speaking capacity thanks to a rehabilitation program China launched in 1988.

According to information released by the China Disabled Persons' Federation(CDPF), there are approximately 800,000 deaf kids under the age of seven and more than 30,000 newborns with impaired hearing ability.

About 70 percent of them live in China's rural areas, according to the federation.

The federation has made it a priority in the coming years to rehabilitate deaf children and enable them to enter mainstream education in primary schools.

A program has been launched to supply subsidized hearing aids to children in needy families across the country with hearing disabilities.

( November 5, 2002)