International Campaign

Mission to Yamasà

You won't find the luxuries of a beach or a 5-star resort, but you will find a group of passionate Dominicans who have graciously opened up their homes and hearts to our Gift of Hearing team. 

Yamasá is a small, rural agricultural community 100 kilometres north of the country’s capital of Santo Domingo. It is home to many impoverished Dominicans as well as Haitians whose families crossed the border looking for a better life in the sugar cane industry. 

In many developing nations, disease, chronic ear infections, loud noise and lack of hearing health education result is a high prevalence of hearing loss. In most of these nations, hearing loss often goes untreated; testing and the cost of hearing aids are often out of reach.

With our knowledge of hearing health and a passion for others, we set out to try making a difference, but we found very quickly that organizing a humanitarian aid trip was not going to be easy. Through the leadership and collaboration of the Friends for Life Foundation, the Gift of Hearing Foundation is now able to fulfill our goal of an annual trip to help our world community.

Established over 17 years ago, Friends for Life started with the delivery of essential medicines to the Yamasá region. Since then, they have added many additional programs including Audiology Support, the Mom and Baby Program and Food for the Poor.

Today, the two foundations each operate a trip to Yamasá each year: Friends for Life in November, and the Gift of Hearing in April. This collaboration ensures that the patients of Yamasá have access to regular follow-up visits, adjustments and repairs that are critical for the successful treatment of hearing loss.

For seven days, the teams work to test hearing, manage ear wax, fit hearing aids, counsel and follow up with over one hundred patients.