I'm Patricia Castellanos; Guatemalan at heart. I educate hearing-impaired people as an audiologist. Thanks to my academic background, I can help these people professionally. 

Through La Fundación Sonrisas que Escuchan (The Smiles that Listen Foundation), I have learned a lot about the people who are living in poverty in Guatemala. I have also met so many wonderful people:

Maria is 1 year old. She has not started to talk yet, and her parents still don't know that she can't hear. If they don't act quickly, Maria could never learn to speak and develop her cognitive potential. Her academic performance will be greatly affected.

José is repeating first grade in elementary school; it has been very difficult for him to learn how to read and write. His parents don't know that José suffers from a moderate hearing loss which makes it difficult for him to separate the sounds of some letters.

Francisco listens to his grandchildren, but doesn't understand everything that they say. So they can't enjoy spending time together as much. 

There are many “Marias”, “Joses” and “Franciscos” hoping to have better treatment opportunities about their hearing disorders. Finding them has been a long and sometimes lonely journey.

Today, we have come a long way with the help of human resources who we have trained - audiologists from other countries and international organizations. We started a baby screening program, we have tested more than 25.000 school age students and fitted more than 6.000 hearing aids, and training courses have been offered to parents of hearing-impaired children. We have also formed audiometric technicians as a profession, and created jobs.

My job is the best! I live in a country which has many challenges, but is of an incomparable beauty and wonderful people. The journey through the world of sound seems to be endless; however, helping to improve the quality of life of a person allows me to sleep peacefully and create new ideas and better dreams.

Patricia Castellanos
Guatemala City, Guatemala, 21 September 2018

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Hello, my name is Sebastiano La Rosa. I am 38 years old. I am happily married, and I have got three children. My wife doesn't work, so I am taking care of our family. My profession had involved industrial chemistry, but almost 15 years ago, there weren't enough employment opportunities in that sector, so, since then, I have had another job in a different sector. I have been working as a chef in a restaurant.

I am from Sicily, and I'm very proud of it. My parents divorced when I was a child. In Sicily, divorcement isn't taken kindly, but still my mom left us. I was raised by my father and grandmother; despite not seeing my mother for years, I didn't feel her absence, thanks to my grandmother. 

My father is the one who published La Portobella Liberta newspaper for the first time, but I always wanted to be a firefighter, like my uncle, when I was a child. Of course, it didn't happen. After I finished my schooling, I went to Rome to become a soldier. In my years of duty, Abdullah Öcalan was in Italy with diplomatic asylum, and I was in the team that guarded him at the Inferno District in Rome. Afterwards, I wanted to continue in the military because the wages were good and I could retire from it, but my father didn't want me to get involved in wars and other incidents, and asked me to come back to Sicily.

In the future, I want to establish my own firm, and to do this, I improve myself at cooking every day. I like travelling very much, too. I wonder about Turkey and Romania most. I like Turkish deserts very much. My aim in 2019 is to explore all of the Mediterranean countries with my family by cruise tours.

Honestly, I don't like to be away from home. When I return to my country and see the statue of Mother Mary, I feel very relieved and happy. I could never give up Sicily. I was born here, and I will die here.

Sebastiano La Rosa
Siracusa, Sicily, 31 December 2018

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My name is Daw Khaıng Mar Cho. I was born in, and I am still living in, a riverside village named Gyıng Gyı. I had only primary schooling. I have 3 brothers and 2 sisters. I’m married, and I have four children. My husband is a boat driver. 

Before we entered the tourism sector, I and my husband were farmers, but we went bankrupt. We had a lot debt. It was really hard; we even suffered from hunger in those days. Then we bought a small boat, a ferry to go back forth from Mandalay to our village. After the tourism boom in Myanmar, in 2012, lots of tourists started to come here. I have decided to organize boat tours at the river for tourists with our boat. I love this job because it makes me very happy to meet with new and different people.

I don’t have any idea for my future, because I have all the things that I need. I’m happy, my family is together, and they are happy also. My only regret in life is that I feel I could have planned it better. From now on, all that I want is to live my days happily till the end of my life.

Daw Khaıng Mar Cho
Mandalay, Myanmar, 17 January 2019

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My name is Ma Cho. I’m 46 years old. I was born in, and still am living in, a village that we call Min Nan Thu. I’m a farmer, and I love my job very much. I’m proud of being a farmer. I put what I grow on the farm in a basket and sell my harvest at a bazaar.

I lost my family because of a disaster that affected my village, and my husband had a paralysis for three years because of it. I tried to look after him as best as I could. But after he came around, he went away with another woman and left me alone. After that, my life became more difficult. I regret that I’m not an educated woman. I want to see my children become educated persons.

I want to live as a farmer till the end of my days. I like farming in my fee farm, but I feel sad when I can’t spare enough food for my children. In the future, I hope I can make a little bit more money. I want to give special and good things to my children.

Ma Cho
Bagan, Myanmar, 15 January 2019

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I’m Abel Girma; I’m 33 years old. I am a driver and a tour guide. I grew up at Addis Ababa. After my mom passed away, my father married another woman. I have a sister, and she works abroad at an airline company, so I live with my grandmother.

I used to chew khat; it makes you high and it’s more intense than coffee, however, it is addictive. Now I’ve quit it, and I haven’t chewed it for the last two years.

In my opinion, the local tourism is a smokeless industry in which everyone wins and the money that comes from it is distributed to all of my people evenly.

I speak Amharic, English, and a little bit of German. I have been working as a driver for seven years. For the last two years, I have had my tour guide license. I work for this company as a driver, and also I organize private tours for additional income.

I want to have my own tourism company in the future, but to accomplish this, first I need to make a decent network. I know that when I give my best service to as many people as I can, they’ll refer me to others.

Abel Girma
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 19 November 2018

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My name is Labuma, I’m the eldest son of the Dasenach Tribe’s chief, and I will be the next chief.

I am married, and I have two wives with seven children. I don’t know my age exactly because we count years with the flood of the Omo River, however, it stopped flooding after a dam was built on it.

We have a big and fertile land; we have our cattles, goats, and also the Omo River gives us plenty fish to catch.

I wish my children to grow up in peace; this is all I expect from life.

Labuma
Omorate, Ethiopia, 13 November 2018

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