Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City

The beginning of 2016 started the same way our Community-Based Hearing Health Care Model does – connecting with local partners and working to train them in our model.

Starkey Hearing Foundation’s team traveled to Vietnam in January to train more than 30 people in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in January and give them the knowledge to provide local hearing health care.

These coordinators are vital to our model of giving hearing health care anywhere we go. They’re the ones who screen the patients and get the ear molds for qualified candidates. They are also the ones who provide follow-up AfterCare services to ensure the hearing device a patient receives is helping them as it should.

The trainings in Vietnam also included students from the Long Island Doctor of Audiology Consortium. It was incredible to see their expressions when they were able to get hands on experience working with patients.

“The first woman I fit with hearing aids was so grateful and happy,” Karissa Bayer, student at LI Au. D Consortium said. “I will never forget the way she hugged me after she was fit. It was life changing.”

Trainings then continued in the Philippines. We were thrilled that not only were we able to add 13 new coordinators to help give hearing in the Philippines, but were also able to establish relationships and train people in countries we’ve never been before, including Fiji, Samoa and American Samoa. In the case of the latter two, we have since already gone in and conducted hearing missions, and AfterCare services are now being provided.

Our early 2016 trainings concluded in India, where again we were able to provide knowledge of our model not only to people in India, but also welcomed people from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

It’s fantastic that we’re able add more local coordinators around the world who will be able to continue to provide hearing health care in their communities.