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23.01.2025

He Was Afraid that He Would not Hear the Whistle of a Missile: Maksym’s Story from Mykolaiv Region

Maksym has been struggling with hearing and speech issues since he was two years old, and now he can only hear with a hearing aid. Due to vibrations from explosions, the device broke, but thanks to donors, the “Voices of Children” foundation got a new one for the boy.

Maksym lives in Halytsynove in the Mykolaiv region with his mother, grandmother, and grandfather. During the large-scale invasion, Russian occupiers shelled the village for eight months.

Maksym was so scared that he wasn’t allowed to go outside. Especially when the hearing aids broke, because the missile whistles, and he wouldn’t hear that whistle. And there were times when we didn’t leave the house for weeks, we were so afraid,
shared Hanna, the boy’s mother.
Maksym lived without a hearing aid for about two months. The family was in dire need of money, as they only had pensions for the grandmother and the boy. They hoped for help from the hospital, but nothing worked out.
Then a miracle happened: the “Voices of Children” foundation called us and said they would help us buy hearing aids. I couldn’t even utter a word because it was a shock,
Hanna recounted.
With the new hearing aid, Maksym began to understand what people were saying to him and started speaking more. Moreover, the boy learned to read, write, and count.
He Was Afraid that He Would not Hear the Whistle of a Missile: Maksym’s Story from Mykolaiv Region — Image  1
He Was Afraid that He Would not Hear the Whistle of a Missile: Maksym’s Story from Mykolaiv Region — Image  2
Maksym dreams of becoming a train driver and owning a BMW car.
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