Western Union Partnerships

Mexico–Amaoir cochlear implant story: Breaking the Silence

Significant hearing loss affects some 1 out of 200 individuals in Mexico, an especially troubling statistic, as culturally there is little acceptance of deafness and sign language is limited.  Children, in particular, have suffered from the lack of programs to help them adapt and sadly their needs come second for many low-income, working families.  Founded in 1995, Amaoir tends to this socially underserved group by helping to secure cochlear devices that allow children with profound deafness to understand spoken language for the first time.  Cochlear technology essentially replaces lost hearing function.  Amaoir also arranges free patient surgeries. 

“The sooner a child is fitted with a cochlear implant and started in therapy, the better they are able to maximize what hearing they have to learn speech and language skills,” said Dr. Gonzalo Corvera, president and founder of Amaoir. 

Western Union Agent, Elektra, worked tirelessly to raise $250,000 for this cause.  The Western Union Foundation matched this generous gift dollar-for-dollar, making the contribution to Amaoir’s Breaking the Silence campaign the largest ever matching grant made by an Agent in Mexico.  The $500,000 donation allowed 38 children in 13 Mexican states to receive cochlear implants at no cost - procedures that would otherwise have been prohibitive for their families.  Recognizing the importance of this program and the dramatic impact on the lives of these children and the Mexican public, Western Union Agents in the U.S. also rallied to the cause and eliminated fees for all those consumers who donated to Breaking the Silence.