Ruzzelle Gasmen, a Filipino Canadian speech pathologist, prides Filipino culture by making hearing aids inspired by Miss Universe 2018, Catriona Gray’s ear cuffs.
Citing a report from the CBC, featuring Gasmen’s shared experience that leads her into customizing hearing aids and for what cause. She sells her handmade hearing aids to people who can afford them. The funds she will collect goes to Wavefront Centre, an organization that provides refurbished hearing aids to people who can’t afford them.
Gasmen was 20 years old when she found out that she had a hearing problem. At the time, she didn’t have enough funds to buy some hearing aids. She was only able to afford them later on when she started her career. Gasmen then started crafting customized designs for her hearing aids and one of her popular designs was the one inspired by Catriona’s ear cuffs which she wore in the MU 2018 pageant.
She shared how she wanted to help those of similar struggles as her through her work. “I just want to give back and help others who are in a similar situation,” she told CBC.
Another one of her Filipino-based designs is the Aswang, which is a popular Filipino myth that’s a vampire-like creature.
She added how customizing ear cuffs was very therapeutic for her in a way, and how it’s a great opportunity for her to embrace her culture and heritage while helping other people who went through the same struggle as her.
“It’s very therapeutic for me,” she said. “It allows me to embrace my heritage and culture in a way that I never really did before growing up,” she added.
Catriona also saw the news featuring the speech pathologist and quoted it on Twitter.
— Catriona Gray (@catrionaelisa) August 3, 2021
Photo Credit: www.facebook.com/rzzyg
Source: www.cbc.ca/player/play/1928236611689
