We came back from abroad for the sake of our son's health: the story of a family from Odesa whose child received modern hearing aids from Rinat Akhmetov Foundation

Khrystyna and her 5-year-old son Pavlo are residents of Odesa. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the mother took the child abroad, but later, due to Pavlo's hearing deterioration, they returned home and turned to Rinat Akhmetov Foundation for help. Recently, the 5-year-old boy received state-of-the-art hearing aids from the Foundation, which are essential for his development and education.

His parents noticed that little Pavlo was hard of hearing in early 2022. A month later, the Great War broke out. Khrystyna's mother entrusted the family's story to The Museum of Civilian Voices by Rinat Akhmetov Foundation. 

"It was very restless and scary at home. We decided to leave. We lived in Italy for 8 months. The war was felt and lived differently there... But due to a number of problems, including Pavlo's hearing, we felt that we had to go home", says Khrystyna.

Upon his return, the family turned to a speech therapist. The path ahead was not easy, both in terms of diagnosis and the family's acceptance of their son's diagnosis. When they found out that the Foundation provides assistance to children with hearing impairments, they applied, and now the boy is already using hearing aids that are adjusted to the child's characteristics and needs. 

"Pavlo started going to kindergarten. There, during an air raid, children are transferred to a shelter. He already knows and understands that the alert is a necessity... We hope for a bright future in a peaceful and independent country. I wish us all a peaceful sky above our heads", says Khrystyna.

You can find the family history here: https://bit.ly/4doFjYE

Assistance with hearing care under the "Rinat Akhmetov to Children. I Can Hear Now" project is available to children with hearing impairments under the age of 7 who live or have lived in territorial communities in hostilities, occupation or encirclement areas. More than 240 children have already been able to hear the world.

If there is a child among your relatives or friends who needs hearing prosthetics, please call the toll-free hotline 0 (800) 509 001 (from Monday to Friday) or write to the Foundation's messenger https://m.me/AkhmetovFDU