Sustainers give 'Voice of Hope' to deaf school students

UNCLASSIFIED

COB ADDER, Iraq - Soldiers from the 3rd Sustainment Command's 7th and
287th Sustainment Brigades worked side by side as they hosted Operation
Voice of Hope Dec. 11 on Contingency Operating Base Adder.

Members of the Muthanna Provincial Reconstruction Team and the 7th Sust.
Bde.'s Civil Military Operation's group worked together to host Iraqi
girls from the Al-Amal School for the Deaf and assist them by diagnosing
hearing impairments.

Lt. Col. Allan White, 287th Sust. Bde., medical operations officer and
audiologist conducted the tests using a standard audiometer.

"My goal today is to see what these children's needs are," said White.
"What we want to do by the end of the day is to have a basic audiogram
to see where they are and what level of hearing they have."

During the past four months, the brigade worked with the Muthanna PRT
organizing the event, after identifying the need while distributing
stuffed animals to the children.

"Because the PRT is reaching out to all people, we hope to bring
attention to this demographic of the hearing and speaking impaired,"
said Aaron Snipe, Muthanna PRT Public Diplomacy officer. "After our
initial visit to the school, the PRT and CMO asked one another what can
we do to help these children?"

"After our initial visit to the school in September with members of the
7th Sust. Bde., CMO we knew we wanted to do more for these girls. We
were told that an audiologist would be arriving here but not until
December," said Snipe.

The Al-Amal School for the Deaf is a special needs school located in the
town of Ar-Rumythan, about 20 miles north of As-Samawa, the capital city
of Muthanna province. The student body is approximately 45 children -
both boys and girls of varying ages. While deafness is one of the
special needs the school deals with, there are also children with other
problems including dwarfism and mental disabilities.

"I swear by God that this is a great project," said an emotional father
named Hassan. His daughter Rusul, a cherubic faced nine year old was the
first girl to have her hearing tested. She was nervous at first but soon
relaxed and had her audiogram completed. She set the precedence for the
other girls who were anxious about what was going to happen to them
during the test.

"We want to thank the U.S. government and the U.S. military, and a
special thanks to Mr. Aaron, for their hard work these past four
months," he said. "After Rusul had her test they told me there is an
opportunity for her to hear in the future. At the end of the day we will
know more after her screening has been reviewed."

"The term deaf is misleading," said White. "They (the girls) may be
moderately hearing impaired and would benefit from a hearing aid. We
hope that by taking this first step we can open the door and educate and
introduce basic audiology into the local healthcare system."