An eighteen year old student will be the first patient benefit from locally conducted hearing surgery.

Organized by the Carabez Alliance, the operation to restore Rachael Dean’s hearing will be conducted at the Suva Private Hospital next week.

Director of Carabez Alliance, Brownwyn Carabez, who is the mother of a child with hearing impairment , says the benefits of the operations are two-fold.

“The vision of the Carabez alliance is that its gonna be handed by the Fijian because if it’s just for me it would die for me.”

The Carabez Alliance received almost 5 million dollars from an organisation in Canada to help provide hearing assistance for Fijians.