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About This Project

Maria

Maria is a beautiful seventeen year old with a wonderfully contagious laugh. We had the pleasure of meeting her a couple of months ago at her hearing aid fitting with Dr. Arineh Khachatoorians of Shohet Ear Associates. Maria never wore hearing aids, though she had been consistently failing screenings since middle school. Once a straight-A student, she was declining significantly in her grades by the time she came to HearAid Foundation. Could it possibly be due to the fact that her hearing loss had never been addressed?! Yes!

 

We were privileged to be the ones to provide Maria with her first pair of hearing aids! Ayca Miller was at Maria’s fitting to assist and support her, since Ayca knows what it’s like to not only manage the wearing and care of hearing aids, but how to deal with the stigma of hearing aids when you’re a young woman. Below is the feedback that Ayca received from Maria, which touched us and encouraged us:

 

Hey Ayca,

So I go to a new school now and now I have new friends. Just recently one of my friends found out I had them and she asked why and I just said it helped me hear better. She didn’t make a big deal but she was pretty understanding. So it was nice to let that out. I can hear way better now. I can now capture all the information being said out loud. And I feel normal. Some of my friends notice I have it and it’s all fine. I really feel like I can connect to the world better now that I can process every different sound. Words become clearer as they are said aloud and I am getting better at my subjects because I am now focused and can understand. I can finally see… well not see but hear, what I was missing.

– Maria