This is a baby-boy, firstborn son. He is sniffing while getting lunch at his Mom’s breast. He has sweat drops on his forehead because he works hard. The boy ate his fill and fall asleep at once directly at his mother’s breast. He is smiling…

This baby-boy is already sitting. He is grabbing the rails of the bed, trying to stand up and reaching out his arms to his Daddy.
Come on, take me in your arms! The Dad takes him and wrinkles from pain at once: the baby grabbed his hair and didn’t want to let it out. Then they both are smiling. Men!

First steps … Panama and sandals … The son is quitting his mother’s hand, running and then falling… His Mom is helping him to stand up and he is running again. The same happy smile is on his face. from the mother’s hands, runs, falls … Mom helps to rise, and he’s running again. His face is the same happy smile.

Olga worried about nothing. Sasha was growing as a strong and active boy. The doctors were satisfied and his father was happy. But the boy couldn’t start talking well. Though most of the boys are lazy ones and are not in a hurry to tell more than “Mom” and “give me” till the age of three. She took the little boy to the speech therapists. They calmed her down: everything is fine with your boy, he will obligatory start talking, and you talk to him more. She followed their recommendations. She used to read fairy-takes for Sasha and turned nice music on.

Trouble came out of the blue when Sasha was sent to the kindergarten. “You have serious problems, – a teacher said sharply. – Your boy can’t hear anything. Do you understand me? He is deaf.”

It is nonsense! How can she say that?

The boy was medically examined again and again. There were many questions from the doctors about pregnancy, birth, and possible children’s injuries. And then…

– Your son Sasha suffers from almost complete necrosis of the hearing nerve. Most likely, it happened immediately after his birth. Delivery was very difficult. The doctors have used medicaments to help the baby to be born. Perhaps this affected the baby negatively.

Olga was shocked. “I do not believe! That can’t be! Sasha was growing a healthy baby! He will remain for me healthy forever. Do you hear? Forever!”

The woman did not put up with the diagnosis of her son. After all, he says something. It means he hears. Why should she register him as a disabled person? Why should she send him to the boarding home for the hearing impaired? Why should she learn sign language?
Why should her son be branded with “impossible to be medically treated” while medicine and medical equipment are developed more and more with every next year?

She tried everything: doctors, hypnosis, psychics… She read hundreds of articles in the internet. Sasha learnt playing flute and oboe, to better hear and distinguish sounds. Olga used to cover her mouth with a cloth not to give him possibility to read from her lips and stubbornly did not want to learn sign language.

His father became tired of this endless battle. He went to Russia to work and stayed there. Now he has a new family. Olga and her son had to leave the house in Krasnoarmeysk to her mother-in-law. They returned to her father in Kharkiv region. But grandfather has his own life where there wasn’t place for his daughter and grandson. Olga was sitting and thinking about the place where they could move and start new life. She dreamt of living at the sea-shore since her childhood. Let’s go to Odessa!

She and her son Sasha lived in a shelter for refugees for some period. Now they rent a very small room of six square meters in the house with the old sick lady – owner of the house. Olga can’t work because she can’t leave the boy alone. Sasha wasn’t accepted at school as he can’t hear the teachers. His mother doesn’t want to send him to the specialized boarding school because his hearing will be completely lost there when he will be taught to use gestures language. It is a gridlock!

To be honest, Olga and Sasha had a visit to the specialized boarding school one day. It was so difficult that the thought to give the child away at least for some period came to her mind all the time. They came to the boarding school. Olga saw the kids in the boarding school and realized: I will do anything but won’t leave my son here. So the mother and the son loving each other continue to live in their small room. Sasha is ten years old. He speaks rather well. He rejoices every sound that he is suddenly able to hear.

Olga read about “Emmanuel” Association at Helpua.org web site and wrote an e-mail to us. “Help us to buy a hearing aid for the boy. It cost about two thousand dollars. I can’t collect such sum of money. Those hearing aids that are given by the government for free kill all alive in the ear. Sasha and I have seen the real hearing aids in specialized stores. They are made in Germany and Canada. Sasha tried one of them on… and heard the entire world around him. You should have seen his astonished eyes. He told me: “Mom, let’s save some money … Let’s buy that hearing aid… Let’s not eat… We can do that…” I can’t sleep since that day. I know that we won’t be able to save so much money even if we don’t eat at all.”

We took Sasha to a specialized clinic. There he was medically examined again. We selected the hearing aid for the boy and it was tuned specially for each ear. “Emmanuel” Association paid all the expenses.

Now Sasha hears everything. He can hear even the rustling of paper. The boy went to school. His Mom reads him books and sings songs in the evenings. She rejoices and cries from joy when Sasha recognizes a song she used to sing to him when he was a little child. Though there is no need to recall everything. There is still so much to do, see and hear!

Gennady Novikov, the press center of “Emmanuel” Association

If you want to join us to help those who are in trouble and in need, you can transfer financial support through site or inform us of your desire to become a partner by phone 0-800-50-77-50.