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In a world where more than 430 million people live with disabling hearing loss—most without access to care—the need for scalable, community-based hearing healthcare has never been greater. This month, 38 newly trained hearing care providers graduated from the Starkey Hearing Institute (SHI) program in Manila, Philippines, ready to bring life-changing services to some of the country’s most underserved regions.
The graduates completed a six-month training program, developed through a partnership between the Starkey Hearing Institute and the University of Santo Tomas (UST), built around the Wide Frequency Audibility (WFA<sup value="®"/>) model—a community-based framework that empowers local providers to deliver hearing care beyond traditional clinical settings. WFA is simple, sustainable, and scalable, allowing essential hearing healthcare services to be delivered outside the confines of a clinical setting.
For over 40 years, the Starkey Hearing Foundation has employed this model to provide the gift of hearing to more than 1.5 million people in over 100 countries worldwide, according to the Foundation.
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Starkey Hearing Institute program in the Philippines is a collaboration between Starkey Hearing Foundation, Anargyroi Foundation, and the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery at UST. This cohort is just the second to graduate from the program in Manila, which first launched in 2024.
Richard S. Brown, President and Board Chair of Starkey Hearing Foundation, emphasized the personal connection formed during training: “You get to know the graduates who go through our program on a personal level; they become like family. Watching people graduate and then learning about the impact they are making in their communities makes this program all worth it. No one else is addressing hearing loss in the developing world at this kind of scale.”
The recent graduating class, which includes students from the Philippines’ Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao Del Sur, Sarangani, Marinduque, General Santos, and Manila provinces, started as a group of strangers but quickly strengthened to something greater by the program’s end.
“They’re cheering each other on when they walk across the stage at graduation,” said Kirk Richards, VP and Chief Administrator of Starkey Hearing Foundation. “They went from not knowing each other to quickly becoming a united team that will go on to serve thousands of people across the Philippines over time.”
The geography of the Philippines makes access to hearing healthcare extremely difficult. The country comprises more than 7,000 islands and 82 provinces. In all, about 15% of Filipino adults suffer from moderate to severe hearing loss, and the majority of these people can’t get the care they need.
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Dr. Gyl Kasewurm, AuD, a Starkey Hearing Foundation Board Member, said, “Access to essential hearing health care services is very limited to nonexistent in the developing world. Manila is such a densely populated city, and then the islands are very spread out. It’s encouraging to know there are 38 more people who can now spread the gift of hearing healthcare access through this program.”
Worldwide, more than 1.5 billion people have hearing loss, with about 430 million of those cases considered disabling. By 2050, the number of people with disabling hearing loss is expected to reach 700 million, making this scalable Starkey Hearing Institute program all the more important. Starkey Hearing Institute in Manila graduated its first class in December 2024.
Dr. Rex Selvido, a new graduate of the Starkey Hearing Institute Philippines program and a medical doctor, understands the wide-ranging impact he and his fellow graduates will have on their country with their training. “Globally, we know there are rising cases of people having difficulty hearing,” Selvido said. “We can help the Filipino people and they can land a job, go to school, and do whatever they want because they can hear.”
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Dr. Garry Kamari, a new graduate who is also a medical doctor, echoes those thoughts. He believes his hearing health education will help him serve patients more effectively. “As a doctor, it’s our vocation to heal,” he says. “[This education] gives me more in my arsenal—a more holistic approach.”
SHI Philippines builds on the success Starkey Hearing Foundation saw with its flagship SHI location in Lusaka, Zambia. SHI Zambia differs from SHI Philippines in that it's a physical campus where students live and study onsite for 10 months. The program began 10 years ago in Zambia and has since graduated 123 hearing healthcare specialists, who are now providing the gift of hearing in their respective countries.
“The people who graduate from our program in Lusaka represent 19 countries across Africa,” said Alfred Mwamba, AuD, Director of Starkey Hearing Institute in Zambia. “Our 123 graduates over the past decade have transformed thousands of lives each year in their communities, illustrating how impactful this program can be.”
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In the days leading up to the graduation ceremony, the students, along with former SHI Philippines alumni, SHF volunteers, and SHF staff joined forces at a hearing healthcare outreach event. Over the course of two days, 929 people were assisted through hearing tests and hearing aid fittings, reconnecting them to their worlds.
“It hit a little closer to home with me now that I’m a mom,” said Nicole Geraghty, Communications and Donor Relations Manager for Starkey Hearing Foundation. “There were so many emotional moments with parents and kids coming in to receive care. I met a mom and her child who traveled five hours to see us. On top of that, the weather is hot and humid, and the traffic is heavy, further complicating things. Seeing that type of dedication from everyone involved in the event was really moving.”
Shailah Solaiman, a social worker and new graduate of Starkey Hearing Institute Philippines program, was moved by the experience of helping others during the event. “As a social worker, I’m aware of the welfare of people,” Solaiman said. “It is my honor to help other people and be the reason they can hear.”
The fitting site also included an area where graduates provided Active Care to patients who had previously been fitted with hearing aids and needed new molds or other repairs. Many people took advantage of this, which Brown says is a good thing.
“It shows us people are using their hearing aids,” Brown said. “The good thing about the WFA® model is we now have people on the ground in the Philippines who can provide this care even after our team has gone home. That’s the beauty of this model and how we are going to continue to make an impact.”
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It has been a busy year for Starkey Hearing Foundation. Just a month prior to the SHI Philippines graduation, the foundation brought together over 100 Starkey Hearing Institute alumni from across Africa and the Philippines for a three-day summit in Nairobi, Kenya. This provided an opportunity for everyone to connect on hearing healthcare, discuss challenges and solutions, as well as share stories about the life-changing work happening across their communities since graduation.
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Because Starkey Hearing Institute programs in Zambia and the Philippines have been so impactful, Starkey Hearing Foundation is planning to launch a third institute this summer in Latin America. Much like the programs in Zambia and the Philippines, the institute will provide training to individuals who can offer community-based hearing healthcare services to their local communities. It will also help ensure Active Care is available to people in this region of the world.
“We are excited about the direction of Starkey Hearing Foundation and Starkey Hearing Institute program,” Brown said. “We’ve found this approach to be the best way to maximize our efforts, and we are eager to begin this important work in Latin America through a virtual program so we can continue sharing the gift of hearing around the world.”
This article was prepared using content supplied by the Starkey Hearing Foundation and edited by HearingTracker for publication.