Tarlac, Manila

After a very brief break in the action, our team traveled more than 11,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean to return to the Philippines.

Our first stop was in the city of Tarlac, a bustling town that has seen its population boom from 200,000 in 1990 to now more than 320,000 people. We jumped right in helping give hearing to more than 1,000 patients during our two-day stay.

We then moved on to the capital city of the Philippines, Manila. Known for being the most densely populated city in the world, we took that as an opportunity to help give the gift of hearing in Manila to as many people as possible.

One incredibly moving story from Manila came from cancer patient Dolores. She was struggling with cancer and came to our site in an ambulance with much of her family. As soon as we were able to restore her hearing, Dolores began speaking with her family, and they began yelling with excitement knowing she could hear them. It was very rewarding to be able to connect Dolores back to her family as she goes through a difficult time with her health.

We also met eight-year-old John. He had an incredibly infectious smile, and for more than half his life, he has been dealing with cholesteatoma, which left him with significant hearing loss. However, once we fit John with hearing aids, he was grinning from ear to ear. You couldn’t wipe the smile off his dad’s face either, who was excited for how much the hearing aids are going to help John get an education.

After our final day of mission work in Manila, our team was able to sit down together and celebrate Thanksgiving with a festive dinner at the University of Santo Tomas.

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Special Thanks

Hearing Solutions: Michelle and Whitney Scott; Bayat Foundation: Monty Simus; ON Semiconductor: Bob Klosterboer; Dreve Otoplastik: Dr. Volker Dreve; Dr. JP Souaid; J.B. Robillard; Jessica Sanchez; Evelyn Cuevas; Kim Brown; Lauren Hancock; Joe and Pat Manhart; Aileen Dalton; Maria, Gabriel and Lara Ramalho; Rob Hamilton; Jennifer Ross; Rad Kivette; Manfred Stoifl; Dr. Yos Phanita; H.E. Lork Kheng; Brian Hilabus; Thuy Ha Nguyen; Van Hai Hoang