Resident sells car to help hearing impaired children

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Centennial Hills resident Mary Willette spent almost a year trying to raise over $25,000 to get Chen Nan, a 14-year-old girl in Fujian Province, China, a cochlear implant. Willette knew for Chen Nan, who had never heard a sound, the implant could change her life.

"We didn't raise it all," Willette said. "And for what we couldn't raise, I sold my car and paid for the rest."

Almost two years after selling her car, Willette is still asking for rides but said she would do it all over again knowing that Chen Nan can now hear sound and is attending an audio-oral school in China.

Many deaf children in China do not have the opportunity to attend school, she said. They have special needs and families must pay to put the students in schools for the deaf which can be very expensive.

Willette met Chen Nan five years before the surgery while leading a hearing project with the non-profit organization she started, Compassion Net International (CNI).

Although Willette found doctors in Australia and New York that were willing to do Chen Nan's surgery for free, she was told traveling for the procedure was not the best option.

"I learned it was best for her to have it done in Fuzhou (Fujian Province's capital) to have the proper follow up care," she said.

A cochlear implant is a device that is surgically implanted into the cochlea of the inner ear in individuals with severe to profound hearing loss, who do not gain benefit from amplification or hearing aids. This device allows these individuals to perceive sound through the implant.

In the U.S., implant recipients are in and out of the hospital in one day, but Chen Nan spent eight days in the hospital, as is common in China.

Willette was with Chen Nan and her family, who Willette has become very close to over the years, throughout the surgery, which took place in March. She also was with the family when the doctors turned the implant on.

"The first thing she heard was her father's voice say her name," Willette said. "It was very precious. Now she loves music. Watching her listen to music, I'd do it all again. I've even heard her call her brother."

While doing research Willette met Pamela Hanson, a certified auditory verbal therapist, who is also a speech and language pathologist. Hanson owns T.A.L.K.S., a Las Vegas-based office that teaches deaf children to listen and speak.

"Cochlear implants have opened a door for amazing access to sound," she said. "Children used to wear very powerful hearing aids, they were huge. Now we are teaching them to listen without the use of sign language. They learn to listen with technology."

Hanson said it is the families' decision how the children should be educated, but she focuses on technology.

"Cochlear implants have opened a door for amazing access to sound," she said.

Willette began working with children on China's southeastern coast when she led a group on a tour of China in 2000. The group was in China's Fujian Province to perform acts of kindness. They visited an orphanage, the second largest hospital in the country and a school for the hearing impaired.

"We were (at the school for the hearing impaired) for two days," Willette said. "We played games, took the kids shopping, bought school supplies, ate with them, we even took naps. We all lay out on the floor. We just enjoyed our time there. It was the second day when my heart just began to break for them."

Willette said a lot of schools for the hearing impaired are boarding schools. Many of the children at the privately funded Hiromi Children's Recovery School, where Willette spent time, had not been in a classroom before the institution opened. The children ranged in age from 5 to 14.

After her trip, Willette began working on starting CNI. In 2002, she got a group of specialists and volunteers together to test the 24 children at the school.

"I didn't know much about the hearing impaired," she said. "I thought we could get hearing aids and bring them (to China)."

Willette said she later found out that not all students could use the hearing aids. The specialists brought audiometers and tested the students. Out of 24, six could not benefit from the hardware.

"The profoundly deaf don't respond to hearing aids," Willette said. "This little girl was one, she didn't respond. That broke my heart."

Willette and the specialists started with the testing and then made ear molds. They visited seven cities and 10 schools for the hearing impaired and learned that there are millions of hearing impaired children in the country, which has a population of more than 1.3 billion.

"China is a developing nation," Willette said. "It is becoming an economic power, if it isn't already. There is a need there. My focus is to help children hear sound better."

The following year, 90 children were tested and 57 were given hearing aids.

"Two elderly men waited all day long and we gave them hearing aids," Willette said. "They were thrilled to hear again."

Each year CNI helps more children. In 2005, 263 hearing aids were given out in four cities in China's Fujian Province and in 2006, 190 children were tested and 139 were given hearing aids.

Since CNI started, 440 children have received free hearing implements.

"Our focus is to help low income, disadvantaged children in China whose families can't afford to," Willette said.

Las Vegas Audiologist Nichole Sheldon joined Willette and CNI on an eight-day trip to China in November.

"I met the rest of the team and we set up a make-shift clinic in a hotel room where we did fittings," Sheldon said. "It was hard because I didn't have the technology I have here. We spent about a half an hour with each kid. They would come from hours away. It was amazing. The families were just so grateful. They said 'you must be an angel sent from heaven.'"

Willette said many children only had one hearing aid because that's all their family could afford, and even more had none at all.

"A lot of people want to see the children of China have the opportunities that our children have here," Sheldon said.

"A bright future, that's what we hope for all these children," Willette said.

CNI has used reconditioned and new hearing aids. The Starkey Hearing Foundation, as well as private companies, have donated hearing implements.

Willette has been given awards from the Chinese government, including an award from the People's Government of Fujian Province, China, in 2003, for offering love and boundless generosity.

"That's what this is all about," Willette said. "This is love."

In 2006, Willette was the only westerner honored with the Fujian Province Charity Award.

"They wanted my definition of charity," Willette said. "Charity takes us beyond ourself if we allow it, if we give without expecting anything in return. Love will cost you your time, it will cost you your money but the reward is more than you could ask for, when you help someone who can not help themselves. And these children, they can not help themselves. I've found great joy in expressing love through this form of kindness."

CNI has many plans for 2007. Opening a school for the deaf is at the top of the list.

"Our goal is to have a presence there," Willette said. "We have a board looking at increasing office space in Fujian Province's capital city of Fuzhou."

Willette's goal is to do two hearing projects a year and to get the word out to specialists in the U.S. who would like to help. She would also like to see CNI get the funding to do about 20 cochlear implants every year.

"I'm committed to doing this for the rest of my life," Willette said. "I've given myself to it. I think this is what I'm supposed to do with my life."

For more information, visit www.compassionnetinternational.org, or send an e-mail to info@compassionnetInternational.org.