Sharing Caring with Every Age

During the 2018 China (Henan) hearing mission, the Starkey Hearing Foundation team, along with Starkey China and local Chinese partners, helped to serve almost 6,000 patients. It was an incredible two-week mission, in two different cities in China.

The partnership between Starkey Hearing Foundation and China began with the Founding Chairwoman of Beijing AiEr Foundation, Madame TAO Si Liang. In an interview, Madame TAO said: “Henan is China’s most populous province with a population of 100 million, among which, over 7 million are disabled people. Starkey Hearing Foundation China Mission has helped greatly those who need hearing aids. With strong support from our local partner, the Disabled and Impoverished Federation of Henan Province and Henan Disabled Person’s Federation, who tried their best to help, we were able to accomplish the mission successfully. It is great work what they have done. Starkey China has also played an important role in the mission, by providing the best tech support and services in Phase 1, 2 and 3. Starkey has met their service quality standard. Beijing AiEr Foundation coordinated all local partners well to ensure the mission went smoothly.”

In the first mission city, Zhengzhou, 12-year-old Xin Zheng was helped by 11-year-old William. Xin is the oldest of five kids and came to the hearing mission with his mother and one of his sisters. His mother was thrilled to see him smiling and hearing with the use of his new hearing aids. She hopes that with this gift, he will study hard and contribute to society. William shared, “it’s kind of hard to think that someone my age doesn’t have hearing. Knowing they will be able to hear for the first time makes me feel happy.”

With a donation of over 12,000 hearing aids in total, thousands of patients were given an opportunity to live better.

During our time in China, we were able to see the effects of receiving the gift of hearing for a patient from 2014. Mengru YANG received the gift of hearing from Starkey Hearing Foundation and her life has been transformed. She became a pottery ceramist specializing in black pottery. She even won a handcraft competition in Yunnan. Now, she has opened a pottery store. She even made a ceramic plate in order to show her gratitude to Bill and Tani for changing her life with the gift of hearing.

In Zhumadian, Li Gud Chen, 72, explained that when he was a little child he couldn’t hear, due to the effects of an illness he had. He was so happy to receive his hearing aids. He lives 30 kilometers from the mission city where he is famous for his ears, because he cannot hear. He could not wait to return and chat with others and share his happiness.

It is important for us to serve the patients one by one and fit each patient one by one. We will leave no one behind. Besides younger patients, many elderly patients also came for help. The gift of hearing may be the only chance for them to hear and connect with their loved ones. Hearing aids are not just plastic parts, they are the gift of hearing, connecting people. Benefiting from our hearing missions, those patients will remember us for the rest of their lives.

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