FSU SAA Help Guatemala Hear

Hello family and friends, and happy (just about) holidays. As many of you know, I am a senior at Florida State University. What you might not know is I am pursing a Bachelors in Communication Science and Disorders with aspirations to become an Audiologist.

In January 2024, I will join a team of students and clinicians from the Florida State University Student Academy of Audiology in traveling to Panajachel, Guatemala where we will serve in the central highlands for seven days. We will be serving through an outreach organization, Porch de Salomon (porchdesalomon.org). Porch de Salomon has hosted short-term mission teams in Guatemala since 2006; in recent years, over 16 each year. Due to extreme poverty, most mission teams' primary focus has been building small concrete block homes for impoverished indigenous families. With the lack of health care in this area, their teams have also provided free village medical and dental clinics. We will provide much-needed audiology services and hearing aids to those in need in this area.

Sustainability is our goal with a continued partnership between Florida State University Speech and Hearing Clinic and Porch de Salomon. Poverty prevents even routine evaluation and treatment of hearing loss in the Western Highlands. Audiology services are severely needed in this area and we hope to provide both training and services. While children are the focus of many audiology mission trips, our organization will provide services to both children and adults. For the indigenous people, we hope to provide the gift of sound.

The trip is being funded entirely through donations and those going on the mission trip. Everything that will be used on the trip must be taken with us. This includes all the medical supplies, audiology supplies, audiology equipment, hearing aid batteries, etc. Every penny collected will be used to directly benefit the people of Guatemala. Any unused supplies will be left with Porch de Salomon.

I am so excited for the opportunity to serve people in need of hearing support in Guatemala and I am asking for your support for this mission trip. I am asking for any donation you may be willing to make to help me reach my fundraising goal of $1,900. Your donation will go to helping me succeed in this experience as well as assisting the underserved people of Guatemala. This is an amazing opportunity and I feel so honored to be able to participate in and learn from this experience. Thank you all so much for any donation you can provide as well as for supporting me through my academic journey. If you’d like to learn more or view updates on our trip, you can follow @fsuaudiology on instagram!

With (very much) love,

Veronica Calderon