Turn on the sound!

Seven-year-old Nastia has a bilateral neurosensory deafness of the 4th degree. This means that without a hearing aid the girl does not distinguish words, and the world around her turns into a chaotic set of sounds and constant noise, as from a nearby train. High-frequency digital hearing aids would help Nastia. If they are not installed now, the girl will forget how to talk. Then about studying in school, and communicating with others can be forgotten.

The town of Gorokhiv is one of the oldest settlements of Volyn. The first written mention of him dates back to 1240. For a long time, Gorokhiv was an important point of fair trade. The products of Gorokhiv furriers, shoemakers and tailors were in great demand far beyond Volyn. Seven years ago in this historic city was born the blue-eyed girl Nastia.

"My husband and I really wanted a girl. When they found out that we will have a girl, it was a real miracle, we were very happy!",  recalls Kateryna, Nastia's mother.

Nastia was born a healthy child, there were no complications and health problems. But when she was two years, the girl had a bad cold, she was wrongly diagnosed, which subsequently affected her health.

"When we were discharged from the hospital, it seemed to me that the daughter does not react at all to the sounds", Kateryna says. "But the doctors assured me that everything is in order, that the child's ears are simply laid and everything will be fine. But it happened differently. A few months later, Nastia was diagnosed with bilateral hearing loss".

Parents began to go with their daughter to classes with a speech therapist and a defectologist. And by the age of five, the girl had formed a phrasal speech.

"Recently, I noticed that Nastia began to listen to what I say, to my words. She tries to make out, to understand them. Previously, this was not", said Kateryna.

Nastia understands the words when they speak very loudly, almost shouting. At the same time, she should approach the interlocutor almost closely. So she can hear something. At the last consultation with the surdologist it was found out that the girl's hearing became worse, the bilateral deafness of the second-third degree developed into the fourth degree. Doctors advise installing hearing aids as soon as possible.

"We can not buy hearing aids ourselves, we have no money. I work as a librarian. The salary, you know, is tiny. My husband does not have a permanent job. In the design of disability, we were refused from the very beginning".

This autumn Nastia should go to the first class. And the girls need the devices as soon as possible, so that she gets used to them, learned to hear well in them and speak fully. After all, she wants to communicate with her contemporaries. She approaches the children on the court. But to ask, as their name, whether they will take her to play, can not. She looks at them and is silent. Children continue to play without her. And Nastya returns to her mother. Silently, and without tears ...

Name: Dubiuk Anastasia, 24.10.2009

City: Gorokhiv, Volyn region

Diagnosis: neurosensory hearing loss of 4th degree