Something like this can only come from God

“He told his mother that something like this can only come from God.  He loves you all as if he has known you for his whole life.  He swept the floor and straightened the chairs ten times before you came and wanted everything to be perfect for the visit.  You’ve taken their pain as your own.  It’s already made such a difference.  A whole life is changed.” 

Liza—Kveshi’s school teacher, family friend and now our friend—is talking about Beka as we stand outside on the yard.  It is St Nicholas Day and we have come to the village to see him with Christmas gifts of a new winter coat and a pair of All Star sneakers wrapped in fancy red-and-green paper with drawings of snowmen, bottles of fizzy wine for Happy New Year toasts and a supply of the medicines he needs to keep the hearing loss from getting any worse.

“Come in, come in!  It’s cold outside,” says Beka’s grandmother in Georgian from the door as she smiles and waves her hands motioning us to move.  “What is everyone waiting for?!” 

Inside, the table is ready.  A plate of boiled pumpkin wedges set in a circle which looks like the rays of the sun, a pile of khachapuri cheese-filled bread right out of the oven and a jug of rose-coloured wine pressed from their own grapes make for the perfect lunch for this visit.  My friend Paula winks at me from across the table as she also notices that Beka takes the seat right next to me.  It seems that each of us has a new friend.  As the meal begins and the pile of khachapuri becomes smaller and then larger and then smaller again as new batches come hot from the kitchen and then disappear just as quickly, I catch a glimpse of him out of the corner of my eye and try to imagine what it is like to sit in silence and not know what is being said or why everyone is laughing or be left out of everything all around you and for your whole life.  I am brought back to where I need to be with the clinking of glasses and the raising of the first toast.

“To Beka!”  It is Lamara—who has joined us for the party along with Liza and Rezo, from the newspaper—with a raised glass and she has taken the lead with what will be an afternoon full of best wishes, here and there, good thoughts, for everyone, and, by the time it is all over, too much wine, at least for me.  “To a new future!  To his new friends here at this table!  For a new life!”

A new life.

It is a couple of months later now.  We have been busy setting up the New Generation Georgia project, researching treatment options from Turkey to Brazil, looking for funds and asking a million questions in and outside of Tbilisi in order to make sure that Lamara’s toast comes true.  It has been the motivation and driving force behind each of us involved within a synergy of positive action which reminds me every day that I have the best friends in the world.   It is a team, as Paula always says and underlines through her actions, which can do together what one person alone is simply unable.  Recently, the team has gotten bigger.

Enter Howard Weinstein.

Howard is the co-founder of Solar Ear, a São Paulo based non-governmental organisation which works to provide affordable access and availability of hearing aids to the deaf and hearing impaired worldwide.  I have met him through my friend Marisha, in St Petersburg, whose research put us on the path to his door, and Mônica, my friend in Rio de Janeiro, who opened the lines and made the initial contact.  He is a Canadian national (Go Canucks!) whose list of activities and accomplishments in terms of helping others help themselves reads like a Who’s Who of people we all should aspire to be.  Before starting Solar Ear, he set up several sustainable small-businesses for people with disabilities in Africa as well as some equally sustainable social programmes for under-represented Brazilians.  His project Nem Luxo nem Lixo (Neither Wealth nor Poverty in Portuguese), which targets increasing opportunities for young people at high social risk in Brazil through providing education and training, won the Inter-American Development Bank’s award for the best business plan of 2008.

“We purchase the same materials as the big companies do so our quality is no less than theirs,” explains Weinstein as he tells me about making the hearing aids at Solar Ear.  “We did a test once between one of our 100 dollar models and one from Europe costing around 5,000 euros.  In the end, the user could not tell them apart.  The only difference is the price because our mark-up is deliberately minimal.  All of our products are assembled by young employees who are deaf.  By developing practical technologies for the region alongside creating employment, training and education programmes, the project grows into a sustainable professional enterprise which puts hearing aids where they need to be and changes societal perceptions or stereotypes about the skills of people with disabilities.”

Jump ahead to last week.

The first of Solar Ear’s hearing aids, special rechargeable batteries with a life-span of three years (unless the dog eats them, of course, as Weinstein jokes) and solar powered recharging stations, the size of a big bar of soap, to arrive in Georgia are here.  The experts in Brazil have read Beka’s audiograms and suggested two of their most powerful digital models.  We have not only received some free extra batteries but also a generous discount in the price which has come as a great and unexpected surprise.  “The hearing aid for his right ear will increase the sound he hears by 80 decibels,” says Weinstein in reply to my question about what degree of restoration Beka will have once the devices are fitted and in place.  “Every ten-decibel increase in a hearing aid is twice the volume.  So, an 80-decibel increase is quite substantial.”

New Generation Georgia is continuing in its work to help Beka regain a happy, healthy and productive life through targeted interventions addressing his hearing loss and treatment options.  We are extremely pleased and encouraged to have met our first two targets of the purchase of round-one medical treatment and the hearing aids and battery charging kits.  Please join us in our project as you can.  All donations will be gratefully received and acknowledged.  Any alternative ideas or suggestions for meeting the next targets will also be more than welcomed.  Follow us, too, on Facebook (New Generation Georgia) and Twitter (newgenereationge).

What we need:

Target 1: USD 500 for speech therapy (three-month period and including travel of specialist from Tbilisi)

Target 2:  USD 150 for medication (round-two of preventative treatment and rehabilitative therapy)

Target 3:  USD 20,000 for cochlear implant surgery (for one ear, based upon consultation with local surgeon)

*   *   *   *

Our arrival in the village is with the same bag of gifts, another pair of All Stars, this time in a different colour, more fizzy wine, more khachapuri and a smiling Beka who is waiting for us at the gate.  Even Paula’s dog has come along this time.  We have brought the hearing aids with us and will make plans for a visit to the audiologist for the fitting next week in Tbilisi.  “He’s already changed more than you can imagine,” says Liza who has known Beka for years and was his teacher in school.  “He sees hope.  Some hope.  Maybe for the first time.”

BANK DONATIONS:

Bank of Georgia
Tbilisi, Georgia
Account Number:  176560200
SWIFT:  BAGAGE22
Beneficiary:  Jeffrey Morski
Notation:  New Generation Georgia, name, surname, home city

PayPal:

newgenerationgeorgia@europe.com
Notation:  New Generation Georgia, name, surname, home city