General Santos, Cagayan de Oro

Our team continued to work their way around the Philippines by stopping in General Santos, the country’s southernmost city.

At one point while working in General Santos, our mission site experienced a complete power outage. Left in the dark, our team didn’t skip a beat to continue to help patients. Some team members grabbed any light they could find and continued to work inside, while others helped move patients outside to fit them in the sunlight. Despite the obstacles, we were still able to help more than 400 patients that day.

One patient who brightened the entire hearing mission in General Santos was one-year-old Marianne. She had never heard a sound before in her young life, and it was fantastic to see her face light up after she received her hearing aids and heard her first sounds. Her mother had tears of joy seeing her child be able to hear her voice, and our team was very emotional seeing a life connected to the world of sound.

Our team then stayed on the south side of the Philippines as we traveled to Cagayan de Oro. The university town was bustling with energy and we worked to match it stride by stride as we gave the gift of hearing.

In Cagayan de Oro, we were fortunate to catch up with seven-year-old Gabby. When we originally fit her with hearing aids in 2014, her father thought that she may not have much longer because she suffered from a heart condition and desperately needed open-heart surgery to survive. Bill and Tani didn’t hesitate to give their assistance to make sure Gabby got the healthcare she needed. Now almost a year removed from the successful surgery, we were thrilled to see Gabby at our hearing mission looking very healthy and happy. It was wonderful to hear she’s now enrolled in school and doing very well.

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Special Thanks

Robillard Hearing Centres: J.B. Robillard; Dr. JP Souaid; Dr. Robert Ang; Dr. Salve Olaia