Alumna’s training, compassion filling vital need in Haitian schools

Audiologist Vanessa Lee, MAHSS ’95, is pictured with just a few of the hundreds of Haitian schoolchildren she has provided hearing screenings to during three trips to the Caribbean nation. Photo courtesy of Vanessa Lee

It’s 7 a.m., the sun is lifting over the Haitian coast, and audiologist Vanessa Lee, MAHSS ’95, is en route to a local school where she will perform hearing screenings on students around the clock until dinnertime.

For most of these students, this is likely their first hearing test.

“Here in the States, children will get their hearing screened just as a part of their schooling,” said Lee. “They’ll get screened multiple times during their school years. In Haiti, they won’t get a test typically at all. Children and adults never get testing unless there’s a problem and they are fortunate enough to go to one of the larger cities.”

The owner of Auglaize Audiology and Sidney Audiology in western Ohio, Lee first traveled to Haiti in the spring of 2017. She’s returned twice as part of the group Mission Possible, an Ohio-based Christian nonprofit that focuses its efforts on education, evangelism, health care and improving facilities in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Each time Lee travels to Haiti, she visits schools in rural communities outside of the capital city, Port-au-Prince, working alongside other medical professionals to provide needed health care services. At the schools, Lee sees as many students as possible, maximizing the impact she can make as the only audiologist in the group.

“Of the 14 days I was there [in 2017] I saw children 11 of those days,” she said. “I’d see between 60 to 100 kids a day. … The next time I went, I was only able to go for a week. I probably saw another 400 to 500 students.”

The missionary work Lee does in Haiti is rooted in her Christian faith and her desire to fill needs when she sees them.

Audiologist Vanessa Lee, MAHSS ’95, examines the ears of a Haitian boy during a trip to the country with Mission Possible, an Ohio-based Christian nonprofit. Photo courtesy of Vanessa Lee

As a graduate student at Ohio University’s College of Health Sciences and Professions, Lee brought her audiology training to communities in and around Athens County.

“Being in the graduate program, one of the things we did there was to do clinics in some of the very rural communities,” she said. “Certainly, that was a learning experience, but also an act of service where you would be with individuals from all economic statuses. We definitely served some individuals that were very much in need. That was a great experience.”

About a year ago, she expanded her audiology clinic in Wapakoneta, Ohio, to Sidney, Ohio.

“At the time, there was a hearing aid (business), but not an audiologist down in Sidney,” she said. “I knew there was a need for audiology services.”

In Haiti, Lee and her fellow Mission Possible medical team members are filling health care needs with personal well-being and loftier goals in mind, noting, “A big barrier to educational learning is not being healthy.”

Over the past 40 years, Mission Possible has constructed several schools in rural areas of Haiti. It is in those schools that Lee provides audiology services.

The days Lee spends in Haiti are long but rewarding. Five of the six schools she visits do not have electrical outlets, requiring her to operate her equipment on batteries.

“Some of the schools are just a few minutes away; some are over an hour away. Some we drive up a dry river bed to get to. Some of them we have to hike part way to,” she explained.

She spends her days in the schools performing hearing screenings on child after child. Children identified as having a possible hearing problem are brought to Mission Possible’s mission center where Lee performs more tests in the evening hours.

“There are times when I hop off [the truck], unload my equipment and go ahead and see them,” she said. “Sometimes it’s hard for them to travel, especially in the dark, so I want to see them right away, so I can get them back on the road and back home as soon as possible.”

What continues to inspire Lee’s work in Haiti is the country’s need for long-term care. Hearing problems are more common than most people think, Lee said, and in the United States alone two to three out of every 1,000 children are born with a detectable level of hearing loss. While it is important to diagnose Haitian children with hearing impairments, Lee said she wants her care to extend beyond an initial assessment.

“My goal is to, once I get all the kids screened, I’d like to establish a clinic up there,” she said. “There’s a hospital right up the road that I’ve visited and talked to professionals there. I’d like to get a clinic set up, so that not only are we seeing those students, we’re seeing others that can come and be tested.”

Part of that goal is rooted in Mission Possible’s motto: “A hand-up, not a handout.” Lee explained that the mission group seeks to train local citizens – teachers, principals and health care staff – to serve their communities in hopes of working toward elevating the quality of life in Haiti in ways that are sustainable.

“I’d love to get a team of professionals that would rotate with me down there and provide some consistent care, or could work with me to set up a training program to train individuals in Haiti to help themselves, to train clinicians to be able to do some basics and provide some consistency of care there,” she said. “So that’s kind of my goal, to help build up a program in Haiti so we can have some more consistent care.”

Lee will continue steps toward that goal when she returns to Haiti this November. An adjunct professor at Bluffton University, Lee is hoping to have an undergraduate student accompany her on this trip to help with the hearing screenings.

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