In November, Dr. King Chung and five NIU audiology students joined forces with students and faculty from Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) in Brazil on a mission trip to Kraków, Poland, where they provided free hearing services for school children, members of a community center, and Ukrainian refugees at Krakow, Poland. The Brazilian team was led by Dr. Aryelly Nunes, an audiology professor at UFRN.
“The services were much welcomed by the parents of the school children and everyone we served, including two holocaust survivors. Our experiences with the Ukrainian refugees left us forever changed,” said Chung, NIU professor and audiology program director.
For more than a decade, Chung has led students in Heart of Hearing humanitarian efforts, providing free hearing services to unserved and underserved individuals around the globe. They have traveled to eight different countries and served more than 4,000 individuals in need.
“Besides providing clinical training, opportunities like this broaden students’ world views and give students new perspectives on diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice/injustice,” Chung said.
Jewish Community Centre (JCC) is a nonreligious, nonprofit organization in Kraków that connects visitors to modern Jewish life and provides community services to Jewish descendants and surrounding people. Poland has a long border with the war-torn Ukraine and many Ukrainians fled to Poland. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, JCC has also extended its services to care for Ukrainian refugees.
During the week-long trip, the NIU and Brazilian teams conducted otoscope exams, tympanometry, distortion product otoacoustic emissions, and pure-tone audiometry. While their initial intention was to examine the hearing status and the hearing health care needs of the refugees, the team was overwhelmed by the number of Ukrainian refugees with hearing loss.
“The impact of the war is often expressed the number of casualties in the media but the damage to people’s hearing is not mentioned,” Chung said. “Ukrainian refugees are not only displaced by the war, but many are also left with a permanent disability that can negatively affect their communication abilities and cause long-term disability.”
Chung said that hearing loss will likely to be one of the most prevalent noncommunicable disabilities among the people who stayed in Ukraine because of the continuous and relentless missile attacks.
“We hope to raise awareness of the great hearing health care needs among the Ukrainians and hope to reduce the negative impact of untreated hearing loss on their quality of lives or their cognitive and communication abilities,” Chung said. “What we experienced was unfiltered firsthand information that really touched our souls.”
NIU student Natalie Woodward shared the sentiment.
“I had the opportunity to hear firsthand accounts of current world events when we tested the Ukrainian refugees,” said Woodward. “One encounter that will stick with me was when I tested a woman who was the same age as me. She was uprooted from her home because of the war and had to travel to Poland with her two young children.”
Woodward said she admired the woman’s resilience and ability to take care of her family while not knowing if she would ever be able to go back to her home. In addition, Woodward said she learned skills that will help her in her future career.
“(I appreciated the) experience of working with patients who are from other cultures as well as those who speak languages other than English,” Woodward said. “I am thankful that Dr. Chung has created opportunities for audiology students to travel internationally with her.”
Krupa Patel, a third-year audiology student, agreed.
“This trip helped me professionally improve my skills but also had a huge impact on me emotionally,” Patel said. “It reminded me that I have the privilege of helping others and the power my services hold to make a difference in other people’s lives.”
Patel said the skills she developed will be useful when working as an audiologist.
“Being able to use my academic knowledge and clinical skills for people in need was an experience that I cannot put into words,” said Patel. “Through this trip I have learned the importance of being culturally sensitive and being empathetic to people around you because you don’t know what they are going through.”
Chung said she could not be prouder of her students and of the global partners who helped make the trip to Poland possible. While participants are back in the U.S. and Brazil, and classes at NIU have resumed, there is much work to be done.
“We hope these stories will raise the awareness of the great hearing care needs of the Ukrainian refugees,” Chung said. “We also hope to obtain enough rechargeable hearing aids so that we can return to Kraków to provide the much-needed amplification services.”
To help, Huskies can provide monetary donations to support students traveling to Poland to provide services by visiting the Northern Illinois University Foundation online giving portal and choose “Audiology General.” Then, send an email to NIU Foundation at niufoundation@niu.edu to specify your name and donation amount for Heart of Hearing for Ukrainian Refugees.
In addition, Huskies can donate rechargeable hearing aids by contacting Dr. King Chung at kchung@niu.edu.
You can learn more about the trip here.
