In March I was abe to take part in a really cool project. Through the audiology cooperative we belong to, Entheos partnering with Hearing the Call, I was able to take part in a project to help 1000 people hear better.
Mr. Beast is a popular YouTuber and philanthropist. He has done life changing projects for those in need such as providing eye surgery so people see again, providing prosthetics to people in Cambodia, giving away free clothes and helping organizations raise money.
He decided he wanted to help people hear better and chose Hearing the Call to help with project. His goal was for us to fit 1000 hearing aids around the world in March and he sponsored Hearing the Call to go to Mexico, Brazil, India, South Africa, Guatemala & Indosia.
He doesn’t mention the group by name but toward the end of the video you see him wearing a blue shirt that has the logo on it and you’ll seem some of the Hearing the Call providers too.
I’ll link the video here:
I participated in the part of the project that went to India. Unfortunately, due to editing India didn’t get mentioned as a location but our efforts were still counted toward the total of 1000 people helped.
India was quite an experience. The people were so nice and welcoming. The patients were so happy and grateful. Here is a picture of a man I got to work with, check out that hearing smile now that he can hear well!!
The gentlemen pictured below was so happy to hear that he wanted to express his thanks. He insisted we take his grapes as a thank you!
The most difficult part of the trip was having to tell families that their child did not have hearing. We had several children come who had not been hearing, did not attend school, had no spoken language and no formal sign language. It is so sad that in other countries these kids go unidentified. Seeing these situations definitely make you grateful for living in a place that has newborn hearing screenings and the services that are needed to help people.
Their parents brought them to the clinic with the hopes that they would be able to hear and we had to tell them that the children did not have any hearing. Thankfully, we were able to connect these parents with a special educator. She will help connect the families to special schools so that the children can learn sign language and attend school. They do have cochlear implants in India, and some of these children may be able to get one.
The whole team!
After the clinic was done I got to spend a day in Delhi with two other Hearing the Call members and it was so much fun! We took a tuk tuk ride…. one thing to know about India is that the lines on the road are only suggestions! Yikes.
