By Ju Lao-ju
Special to
Daily Xpress
Published on May 26, 2008

An NGO set up by a British audiologist is doing vital work in Cambodia .Spurious ear medicine has probably been around longer than the pyramids. In Egyptian days physicians would put red ochre that had been ground in balanites oil and the juice of tamarix in ears that were deaf.

Sadly, a lot of hocus pocus can still be had in Cambodia. One person suffering with granular myringitis had, after careful instruction from a khmer kru (a traditional medicine man), pounded to death a bagful of snails and packed them into his ear. Another poured petrol into his ears to stop the bells ringing inside his head.
Enter All Ears
All Ears Cambodia, a Phnom Penh-based non-government organisation, fortunately provides a different medical service. It works with Cambodians from all walks of life - from newborns to the elderly - helping them to hear.
Sin Chan Seyha of All Ears says: "Hearing is fundamental - it connects us with the world. Its loss, however, is one of the most severe and least recognised disabilities; yet so rife it affects a quarter of a billion people on earth. The damage hearing loss causes can be life-shattering. In children it impairs language and speech which in turn can dramatically slow progress in education. In adults it causes vocational and economic difficulties."
An estimated two million Khmers suffer some degree of deafness.
Vital support
All Ears Cambodia provides vital support to those with ear problems. The NGO was set up four years ago by Glyn Vaughan, an English audiologist who has worked for years in developing countries and now lives in Phnom Penh.
The service All Ears offers is centred round two young women that run its clinic. Seyha and her sister, Tith Makara, both have extraordinary medical, teaching and social skills. They also have an irrepressible longing to help those left in the squalor from which they came.
MORE ON THe web:
www.allearscambodia.org
info@allearscambodia.org