SOMERSET, NJ October 29 – The Oticon Hearing Foundation will again underwrite the costs for Project Amazon, a unique humanitarian mission that will provide much-needed audiological care and hearing solutions to children and adults from some of Brazil’s most impoverished communities. Two US audiologists from Illinois State University, Lindsay Bondurant, PhD and second-year AuD student Ellen Avoletta, will travel to the Oticon Clinic in Parintins, Brazil as part of Project Amazon. They will work with Oticon staff to screen in-need children and adults and fit Oticon hearing instruments donated by the Oticon Hearing Foundation. The American Academy of Audiology Foundation’s Educational Grants Review Committee selected the two audiologists from the pool of applicants who applied for the mission this year.
Lindsay Bondurant, PhD (left), and second-year AuD student Ellen Avoletta (right).
“We are pleased to welcome the Project Amazon audiologists and look forward to their contributions to the work of our Oticon team here in Parintins,” said Alessandra Agarez, Human Resources Manager and Social Responsibility. “We serve a large and diverse population and having the opportunity to add the skill and expertise of volunteer audiologists enables us to provide sustainable care for more people and further ensure their ongoing hearing health.”
Bondurant and Avoletta will travel to Parintins from November 15 – 25 and will report on their experiences in Parintins in blogs posted on the Oticon Hearing Foundation website (www.oticonhearingfoundation.org).
This is the third year that the Oticon Hearing Foundation has underwritten travel and expenses and supplied hearing instruments and batteries for a humanitarian mission to Brazil. In 2011, the Foundation also funded a Mission to Xanthia in the Vredefort Dome area of South Africa.
For more information on the Oticon Hearing Foundation and the Project Amazon blog, visit www.oticonhearingfoundation.org. For more information about Oticon, please visit www.pro.oticonusa.com or the Oticon Expo Page on AudiologyOnline.
