A Better Fit

Dr. Doug Clutton and wife Valerie recently returned from a prolonged stay in Canada to the Philippines after having  previously spent many years working as missionaries with the Deaf in Manila.  They have now moved to the city of Bacolod on the island of Negros and again are serving as missionaries to the Deaf working mainly in developing vocational and income generating projects for the Deaf.   Dr. Doug is an audiologist by trade.  This skill and training are very rare in the Philippines and there is a tremendous need all over the islands for his type of services.  Although there are several universities providing education and training in the field of audiology, almost all graduates go abroad to work leaving the Philippines with only a few.

IDEA Philippines has a beautiful hearing clinic which has been put together through the efforts of organizations such as CBM, Rotary Honolulu, Dr. Bukowsky, and other private individuals.  The new clinic building was just finished at the end of 2010 and our staff is still in need of additional training to really make it functional.

For this reason, we at IDEA were thrilled to meet Dr. Doug and even more excited when he offered to provide us with some much needed additional training on how to fit hearing aids and make permanent ear molds.

The week long training funded by CBM was an intensive hands on workshop and very practical.  Although our IDEA Philippines staff are not audiologist, they are now one step closer to being qualified hearing aid technicians and dispensers.  Because of the  proximity of Bacolod to Bohol, IDEA plans to have Dr. Doug come back to help us fit donated hearing aids to our hard of hearing students and to impoverished elderly Bohol island residents.  IDEA Philippines already has over 100 donated used hearing aids and is always anxious for more so that we might be able to help those hard of hearing Boholanos who just could never afford to purchase hearing aids.