"Thank you for helping me with my hearing. Thank you. I like playing soccer, and, when I grow up, I want to become a pilot."
With those words, a young orphan in Uganda named Joseph breaks out into a huge smile.
Joseph was robbed of his hearing by severe ear infections when he was a small child fighting for survival in the slums of a Ugandan city.
He found sanctuary in an orphanage, but was reclusive and prone to aggression as he descended into a world of silence.
Today, with the gift of hearing aids from Australia, his world has opened up.
The hearing aids came from the Lions Hearing Foundation, in association with the Ear Science Institute of Australia.
Marcus Atlas is the ear institute's director and chief surgeon.
He says, as a young surgeon, work was about the techniques and procedures but, now, it is increasingly about the people.
"As time goes on, it starts to be much more about how the people that you operate with and work on and work with are changed. And, so, to see somebody who can't hear and wants to hear and then can hear, it's just the best thing you can have in your life in surgery or medicine. So, it's been a wonderfully fulfilling thing, both in Australia and in the countries we visit."
Old hearing aids are donated through various means and end up at the Ear Science Institute, where they are refurbished and cleaned.
From there, the devices are sent to countries in Africa and Asia.
The institute's chief executive officer, Sandra Bellekom, says the hearing aids do more than just improve hearing.
"Unfortunately, in many developing countries, if a child has hearing loss, it's not always picked up, because those services aren't available, and then that child could potentially end up being put into a school or an environment with other children with multiple other disabilities. And an assumption is often made that the child might have an intellectual disability when, in fact, there's a chance that the child's intellect is perfectly intact, it's just that they can't hear."
It is not just hearing aids being sent overseas, but also knowledge.
The institute is training audiologists and surgeons from developing countries to fit cochlear implants.
Marcus Atlas says the Australian-invented devices can last for the lifetime of a recipient.
"The quality of life and productivity of children and young adults and adults who get implanted is such that they can get involved in the community and their professional work life. So, that's the story. The story is of economic value for developing countries and how this will help the country to be able to prosper. People who hear are far more productive and have a better quality of life than people who have difficulty hearing."
Sandra Bellekom says improvements to technology, along with internet capabilities, mean knowledge and expertise can be shared across the world, as well as around Australia.
"We've spent many years on automation, so having a look at ways that we can assess people's hearing without a person having to do the hearing test, and that's referred to as automatic audiometry, or automated audiometry, but also tele-audiology or e-audiology, which means that you can assess somebody from a distance. And so we've spent around 10 years working in that field in order to try to provide care from a distance. So we're actually doing that research with another researcher who's in Africa, but utilising our knowledge in rural and remote places here in Australia."
