Those who are a little different are rarely strangers to the camera.

I couldn’t stop my finger from clicking away upon seeing the little smiling faces of deaf children during my visit to schools catering to this special group. There, no one pays attention to their cochlea implants or hearing aids when they play, running and laughing. Their smiles and laughter are as sweet and brilliant as any other children, except that some endure a world of silence.

They are too young to live in a perpetual hush, and some have never heard their mothers’ voices.

Can anything be done to make a difference?

The answer must be affirmative since the world has been paying more attention to these innocents, and media outlets have been increasingly involved in campaigns designed to help them.

In November 2011, a public welfare photo exhibition was jointly presented by the China Rehabilitation Research Centre for Deaf Children and China Pictorial Publications, in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong Province, to commemorate China’s 13th Ear-Care Day on March 3.

The second national sample survey on disabilities in China revealed that 27.8 million people suffer from hearing disorders, of whom 137,000 are children under the age of six. Since 1988, the Chinese government has included projects to treat children with hearing problems in its five-year plans for national economic and social development. According to statistics, by the end of 2008, more than 300,000 children had recovered. Greater numbers of children have benefited from treatment since the multi-channel cochlea implant was introduced in 1995. Aid campaigns promoted not only by the Central Government, but government agencies at all levels, have attracted considerable support from people of all walks of life. In some more developed municipalities and provinces, hearing aids are available for children free of charge.