When I Grow Up, I Want to Hear
CBN.com There are over 140,000 poor children who are deaf or hard of hearing in China. The fact is: if these children do not receive hearing aids before they turn seven, they may never speak or have any kind of future. Zhaoxu could have fallen into that statistic if CBN had not come to his aid at his most critical moment.
Seven-year-old Zhaoxu is like most little boys his age. He has big plans for the future.
"I want to be a soldier or a policeman when I grow up because I am a man. I am not scared of anything, and I will not let anything stop me!"
Zhaoxu couldn’t wait for his first day of school. He knew he could keep up with the other kids, even though he was deaf.
"I really wanted to go to school just like everyone else, so my mom bought me pencils and a pencil sharpener. I was ready," he says.
Mrs. Zhang is a single mom raising her little boy. She remembers the day the doctor told her that her son would never hear. She scraped together every penny she had to buy him a hearing aid and get him into speech therapy classes. Four years later, Zhaoxu was able to hear and talk just like other children his age. Shortly before he started his first day of school, the unthinkable happened— his hearing aid broke. And he couldn’t hear a sound.
"I couldn’t start school without my hearing aid. I cried, and my mom cried, too," remembers Zhaoxu.
As Mrs. Zhang walked into the hearing center, she knew she didn’t have enough money to buy a new hearing aid. A doctor there told her to contact CBN.
"Earlier this year, CBN came to our training center and offered to help poor children with hearing problems. When I saw Mrs. Zhang crying outside of my office, I knew she was crushed, and I hoped CBN would be able to do something for her son," says the doctor.
Mrs. Zhang wrote a letter to CBN, asking for help. With just two days before school started, CBN delivered a brand new digital hearing aid for Zhaoxu. He couldn’t stop jumping for joy at the sight of it and at the sounds, he could once again hear.
Zhaoxu’s teacher says this little boy is a star student -- one of the best in his class.
"I have no doubt that if he keeps studying like this, he’ll easily be able to attend college," says the teacher.
"I love my new hearing aid. Thank you so much. Now I can work hard and be a boy my mom is proud of," says Zhaoxu.
