216 why children lose their hearing and what we can do
Working for change
Ruk’s story
When Ruk was born in a village in Nepal, his mother struggled
a long time to give birth. At first she thought her baby would not
breathe. As a baby, Ruk would cry at night and he always seemed
to have a cold or fever.
Ruk played on the mud floor and outside the house where his
family spread the millet and corn to dry and separated the rice
grain from the chaff and dust. Chickens, goats, and their dog lived
in the same small area. Ruk loved to sit and watch his mother cook
at the open stove, even though the wood smoke stung his eyes and
made his nose run.
As Ruk grew older, he always seemed to have a runny nose.
Sometimes he had very painful earaches in both ears, which often
drained pus. He loved to swim in the
small river below the village, but this
made the pus drain even more.
When Ruk started going to school, he was slow to learn and not
very good at reading. The teacher got angry because he thought
Ruk was ignoring what he said. But it was hard for Ruk to hear the
teacher. So, to avoid getting into trouble, Ruk sat at the back of
the class. Children teased him. He spoke in a funny way and was
difficult to understand.
Finally Ruk’s parents decided it was not worth spending money
to pay for his school uniform, books, and pens if he was not going
to learn. So Ruk stopped going to school. Instead, he carried wood
for the fire, fed the animals, and scrubbed the cooking pots for his
mother.
One day, Ruk got a terrible earache that lasted for several days.
His ear filled with pus and he developed a swelling
behind the ear. Finally his father took him to the
village herbal healer, but the medicines did not take
away the swelling. His father had to carry Ruk to
the health post in another village. The health
worker there drained an abscess behind
Ruk’s ear and gave him an injection and
some antibiotic syrup to take for a week.
Helping Children Who Are Deaf (2004)