A FOUR-year-old girl's life is back to normal after she received a new hearing aid last Friday.

Little Inako Kom lost her hearing aid when it was snatched by a thief who apparently mistook it for earphones while she was playing with other children outside her home in Delft, near Cape Time.

"We are delighted. We are humbled by the quick response after her story appeared in Sowetan last week," Inako's father, Welcome Nkabi, said.

He thanked her school, the Carel du Toit Centre for Children with Impaired Hearing in Tygerberg, who played a pivotal role in raising funds to buy the new hearing aid.

"The school promised to use the surplus from its fund-raising drive money to do a cochlea implant (a surgically-implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing)," said Nkabi.

Ntombokhanyo Kom-Kabi, Inako's mother, said: "I want to thank the media for their role, and the Phonak hearing aid company for giving our baby such an expensive device".