Sok San in Cambodia

While in Cambodia for a recent Phase 2 mission in Phnom Penh, members of the Asia Pacific team learned that one young patient in another city needed new hearing aids. Sok San Sueong shares a special bond with Starkey Hearing Foundation co-founder, Tani Austin.

Tani first met Sok San in 2014 and fit her with hearing aids the following year. At the time, Sok San was about 5-years-old and did not attend school due to her hearing loss. But the following day, Tani visited a local school and was greeted by Sok San and her mother in one of the classrooms. The formerly shy and withdrawn little girl’s personality had blossomed and she was a much more active child in the space of one day. It was an encounter that galvanized the need for Phase 3 AfterCare.

Now 9, Sok San is in the first grade where she is working to develop her speech. Her original hearing aids broke recently and Sok San was wearing a pair from her school. A small team traveled to Siem Reap to conduct a mini AfterCare for Sok San and fit her with new hearing aids.