November 6th, 2015 by Rachel | Tags: Peace Corps, Sustainability | No Comments »
For many years, I ran a successful blog on cochlear implants and hearing loss. About eight years ago, a mom who was born deaf contacted me by e-mail through my blog. She recently gave birth to a son who was also born deaf. The mother never received a cochlear implant and she primarily communicated in sign language but she led a very successful life. She told me that she learned to play a flute, was a figure skater, received a bachelors and masters degree, and is currently teaching. She then said that she felt that if she could hear, she could do so much more. When she first learned that her son was deaf, she made no plans to get him a cochlear implant because of misinformation she received from the culturally deaf signing community. Cochlear implants are dangerous and cause headaches and electrocution and they do not work are examples of myths that are often heard. However, she then came across a story I posted on my blog about a mom who was also born deaf and was raising two deaf children who were doing very successful with cochlear implants. This blog post made her realize that cochlear implants do work very well and are very safe. She asked me to connect her with the deaf mother of the two deaf children. I put the two in touch.
Her son received bilateral cochlear implants one year later. Seven years later, her son is speaking and hearing beautifully without lipreading. His language skills are above average. He has been attending mainstream school. He loves to play a guitar and listen to music.
About two years ago, a woman contacted me through the blog. She said that she had lost a significant amount of hearing. While she was able to use hearing aids, she still struggled to communicate with other people. She said that hearing difficulties was putting strain on her relationship with her family and friends. She consulted two cochlear implant surgeons who would not qualify her for cochlear implant because she could still hear with hearing aids. She asked me for tips on how she could convince them to still be qualified for a cochlear implant. I gave her a name of another cochlear implant surgeon in her town and advised her to get a third opinion. Several months later, she contacted me and informed me that the third cochlear implant surgeon whom she contacted qualified her and that she has received a cochlear implant. She said that she has been hearing so much better and noticed a remarkable difference in the quality of her life.
These are just a couple examples where by providing knowledge to other people, lives have been changed. I have often found that when I am able to change one person’s life by simply providing information, it is the most gratifying feeling. This is why as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I have made a choice to focus on just sharing information with hopes that at least a few people’s lives will be changed. We should never underestimate the power of sharing knowledge. It’s important to note that while I can do so much to reach out to as many people as possible with new knowledge for them, they have to do their part by being motivated to use the new information and apply them to their life and community. However, sharing information and seeing people using the new knowledge does really take development much further than building something for the community. Change also may not be instant, but as long as we have patience, we can eventually see them many years later.
I often tell people in my community, “You need to be able to do this work yourself. Who will be able to continue the work when I leave in October 2016? You can’t count on another volunteer coming.”
