Source: http://blog.seattlepi.comDuring my recent travels in SE Asia, I was fortunate to spend an evening with Director Glyn Vaughan of All Ears Cambodia in Phnom Penh. What an amazing place and individual - both left a lasting impact on me and I continue to dwell over the experience.
Cambodia is an extremely poor country still recovering from years of war and strife from the Khmer Rouge regime. It does not allocate any government resources to its disabled people. As a result, thousands of hearing impaired children and adults are left without the education, hearing aids, or services they need to thrive and many end up destitute and/or reliant their entire lives on family for support.
An All Ears marketing piece indicates that "an estimated 2 million Cambodians suffer from disabling deafness...and over half of these cases could have been prevented." In fact, chronic ear infections are so common that, in many villages, it is considered normal. And, of the ones in need of hearing aids, less than 1% have them.
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