Lusaka

After eight months in the classroom, students of Starkey Hearing Institute put the skills they learned and the knowledge they acquired through one final practical exam: a hearing mission in Lusaka. The students worked with Institute teachers and advisers to fit more than 150 patients with hearing aids.

“We have been training students, and they need to showcase what they have learned,” said Alfred Mwamba, executive director of Starkey Hearing Institute. “This is for the students and for us to celebrate them and their achievements of the past year.”

As is the Starkey way, the hearing mission was truly a family affair. Our leaders mentored the students, we danced and sang, we laughed and cried, and we witnessed a marriage proposal.

As the students return to their respective countries, they will change the lives of their patients and change Africa's hearing healthcare system.

“I have the ability to tell people, ‘I can help you’,” said Amadou Bah, a 2016 graduate of Starkey Hearing Institute from the Gambia.