Starkey Hearing Aid Project

A student from Naxal's deaf-blind unit is fitted with a hearing aid.


Getting fitted with a hearing aid while another student looks on. At least a few of the students were worried about getting hearing aids, and one girl told me she couldn't sleep the night before. When I came to the school that morning, there was a young girl crying in the hallway, because the new sounds she was hearing were so disorienting. Watching the kids get fitted with hearing aids was a strangely emotional experience. While I don't remember what it was like when I got hearing aids at the age of two, my parents told me that I hated them at first, and that I used to hide them in the sandbox. And yet now, both my hearing aid and cochlear implant have given me opportunities that I wouldn't have otherwise. Some of the kids love their new hearing aids, some don't. By the end of the day, many of the kids have already taken their hearing aids out, preferring to have silence instead.


Audiologists from India, America and Canada came for two days to fit a thousand hearing aids in both students and in others with hearing loss or deafness. I had the chance to see the Kavre students for the first time in a few months, as they took the bus down from Banepa to get fitted with hearing aids. Members of Patan's Rotary Club had been volunteering for months to set up these two days, helping the kids get hearing exams and fittings for hearing aid molds.

The first day of the project took place at Kathmandu's main Rotary building, and I watched as both old and young were fitted with their new hearing aids. More than one dazed older person had to be helped off as they tried to contend with the new sounds they were hearing.