Last year Mariana travelled from her home in Brazil to London to attend Cochlear™ Foundation’s Achieve anything: Global Summit as a National Ambassador.
This exciting overseas trip to London was a fun and extremely busy week – meeting other ambassadors, sightseeing, sharing stories and listening to other advocates for hearing loss. Most important, were discussions about ways to advocate for young people with hearing loss and to ensure they have access to quality education and hearing health care and support.
With so much to take in, Mariana wanted to make the most of her experience. Technology proved to be her best friend. As well as her sound processor, Mariana leaned heavily on her mobile phone to enjoy her trip and she’s happy to share her advice.
Plan ahead
“Write down everything you need one week before your travel. I always take both my disposable and rechargeable batteries, my dehumidifier to store my sound processor, battery charger and a universal plug for outlets.”
Have everything ready at your disposal
“I keep my batteries and everything I need for my hearing devices in a dedicated bag. I always keep this in my hand luggage to avoid the risk of losing them.
“When passing through the airport security area, I also always have my Patient Identification Card in my hand, which also helps to pass through priority queues. I also keep this ID card in my hand luggage, so I know it’s always close to me.”
If you don’t have your Patient Identification Card, you can also use your Cochlear Family Card.
“I also think about what I need throughout the day when I arrive. When I leave the hotel, I usually come back late, so I always try to take with me everything I consider important, including extra batteries.”
Find other tech that can help you
“I do not speak English fluently, so on my recent trip to London, I made use of Google™ Translate, which helped me a lot in various situations.”
Google Translate on your mobile phone (either iOS or Android) will easily translate foreign languages into your own. Just point your camera to instantly translate what you see. You can also translate speech when talking to someone who speaks a different language; just turn on ‘transcribe’ to understand what’s being said. And you can save translations so you can access common words and phrases when you need them.
Purchase a local SIM card
It’s very handy to have internet access while travelling to be able to access local apps, maps, train and bus timetables, and so on.
“I buy a SIM card as soon as I arrive in another country; this is very important if you need access to the Internet.”
Moments to last a lifetime
These techniques helped Mariana appreciate the special moments she experienced at the Achieve Anything: Global Summit. “Participating in these moments with the ambassadors was wonderful. Each one had a wonderful, beautiful, and inspiring story,” she says.
“Another awesome moment was when Malala said that ‘we are not alone. Together we are stronger, and united we can raise our voices and change the world.’ I came back to Brazil with other thoughts. That we can raise our voice and go after what we want.”
To find more articles about travelling with your Cochlear device, search for Cochlear Family News travel in your usual search engine.
