Many medical professionals live out their entire careers without ever stepping out of the comfort zone of their high tech cocoons. Then, too, you find somebody like St. Joseph Audiologist Dr. Gyl Kasewurm who for a remarkable fifth time has ventured afar to not only minister to people who otherwise would never have the capacity for a simple health exam let alone her gift of life changing help for a critical problem. 
Dr. Kasewurm and her husband, David, have recently returned from a mission trip to Africa where they gave the gift of hearing to 1,500 children and adults.
Dr. Kasewurm is proud to join forces with the Starkey Hearing Foundation to support their efforts. The Starkey Hearing Foundation brings understanding among people through hearing care by focusing on awareness, education, protection and treatment, so the world may hear.
They provided the gift of hearing to over 160,000 individuals around the world in 2018, and this was Dr. Kasewurm’s fifth mission trip with the organization. She currently serves as a Board member for the organization.
The St. Joseph native says, “I feel fortunate to be able to join the Starkey Hearing Foundation on their mission trips,” adding, “There is such a shortage of care in these countries and providing the gift of hearing gives recipients the opportunity to live a more productive life.”
During this particular trip, Dr. Kasewurm and her husband also participated in the graduation of eight students from six African countries from the Starkey Hearing Institute in Lusaka, Zambia. After nine months of classes and intensive hands-on training, the students are now certified hearing care specialists, themselves. The Starkey Hearing Institute has now graduated 30 specialists working within Africa, a country that has more than 50 million people that suffer from the devastating effects of hearing loss.
Hearing loss affects 1 in 10 Americans, and 63 million children worldwide, yet many do not have access to hearing services. Bill Austin, President of the Foundation, has committed to give away more than 100,000 hearing aids every year in this decade. He says, “Alone we can’t do much, but together we can change the world.”
Dr. Kasewurm is a Board Certified Audiologist and owner of Dr. Kasewurm’s Professional Hearing Services in St. Joseph. Her practice has been serving the residents of Michigan’s Great Southwest for more than 35 years and is a best practices benchmark for practices across the country.
You can learn more about the work of Dr. Kasewurm and the Starkey Hearing Foundation through their individual websites.
Here’s the link for Dr. Kasewurm’s Professional Hearing Services: http://www.prohear.net
This is the link for the Starkey Hearing Foundation website: http://www.starkeyhearingfoundation.org/
