World Hearing Day 2026

Please read the information on this page before applying for a small grant.

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As part of activities promoting World Hearing Day, the World Hearing Forum (WHF), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Coalition for Global Hearing Health (CGHH) invite proposals for WHF-CGHH Small Grants for World Hearing Day 2026.

The World Hearing Day 2026 will be observed on March 3, 2026, with the theme ” From communities to classrooms: hearing care for all children.”

From communities to classrooms: hearing care for all children the 2026 World Hearing Day will highlight the importance of integrating hearing care into school health and child health programmes to help children hear, learn, and succeed.

This year’s campaign focuses on two imperatives:

• Preventing avoidable childhood hearing loss
• Ensuring early identification of and care for children with ear or hearing problems

Target Audience

• School age children
• Adolescents and young adults
• Children with hearing loss
• Parents
• Teachers
• Health workers at primary level of care and involved with school health
• School health nurses and doctors

Communication objectives:

• Promoting routine ear and hearing screening as part of school health packages
• Encouraging cross-sectorial partnerships
• Advancing early identification, treatment, and referral pathways within existing community and school platforms
• Empowering teachers, parents, health workers and children through information resources

To promote and support such actions, WHF, WHO, and CGHH have launched a small grants scheme. As part of this scheme, partners can apply for a grant of up to USD 800 to cover expenses related to World Hearing Day activities. A maximum of 30 grants will be provided based on recommendations made by a selection panel.

Eligibility criteria: Events/activities will be eligible for the small grants scheme if they:

• Take place on or close to the World Hearing Day (3 March 2026)
• Focus on the theme: “ From communities to classrooms: hearing care for all children“
• Target the general population and/or policymakers, to raise awareness about hearing loss
• Use WHO awareness material
• Have measurable outcome(s)
• Are registered on the WHO world hearing day registration site

Requirements / Timeline

• Complete the application process by December 31, 2025
• Notification of selected grantees January 31, 2026
• Following the event, a brief report with photos must be submitted to WHO by March 14, 2026
• Photos must include a signed declaration of consent from recognizable persons in the photographs
• Reports submitted by March 14, grantees will receive up to USD 800 by 30 April 2026. Grant payments will be delayed for those that submit reports late.

Selection Process:

• Applications will be reviewed by a panel of experts selected from the WHF, WHO, and CGHH.
• Each grant application will be scored on a scale of 0-25 points using the following criteria:

• Are the activities relevant to the theme? (0-3 points)
• Is the organization aligned to the principles of the World Hearing Forum? (0-3 points)
• Will the activity help to raise awareness on hearing loss? (0-3 points)
• Does the activity have a measurable outcome? (0-3 points)
• Is this an innovative activity? (0-3 points)
• Could this activity inspire others to act, by being showcased? (0-3 points)
• Is the organization/activity likely to benefit from the small grant? (0-3 points)
• Overall rating of this application? (0-4 points)

Applications with the most points will be selected for funding with preference given to first time awardees. Once the activity reports and photos have been received by the WHO, the grant amount will be sent to the relevant organizations via a Pay Pal.  All payments will be made via PayPal. Do not submit an application if you are not able to get a PayPal account. PayPal invoices from the grantee MUST be received by March 14th in order to receive money by March 31st. A certificate will also be given by the World Hearing Forum.