We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dawn Doig. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dawn below.

Dawn, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We love heartwarming stories – do you have a heartwarming story from your career to share?

I have been incredibly blessed with two extremely rewarding and fulfilling careers as an audiologist and a teacher which took me overseas for 16 consecutive years. My most recent international teaching position was as an ELL teacher and coordinator in Cameroon, Africa. While teaching at an International Baccalaureate school in Cameroon, I had the opportunity to visit an orphanage and school for deaf children about 80 km outside Yaoundé. Sister Simone, the Catholic nun who looks after the children, gave me a tour of the facility. It was heartbreaking to see how these children who have so little are living. They are currently living and attending school in an old chicken factory that is literally falling apart around them. The children have to huddle in the corner of their bedroom during rainy season as the roofs are not intact and leak. Sister Simone had to board up the windows in the bedrooms as a man was trying to abduct some of the children. As an audiologist, these children and their situation affected me deeply. Cameroon is not the easiest country to live in, let alone when you are deaf. It’s challenging as one person to try to make a difference in the lives of others, but I thought maybe there was something I could do if I could share their story, I am the published author of 15 children’s picture books, many of which have been inspired by the children I have worked with both as an audiologist and an educator. So, I decided to start a GoGetFunding fundraiser with my books as the root of the fundraising in an effort to help Sister Simone raise enough money to build a new orphanage and school. I have been donating all of the proceeds I receive from my book sales to the fundraiser. I also went on Clubhouse and shared the story of these children. While contributing in one of the rooms on this platform, Vancouver businessman Simon Beglau heard me speaking. He subsequently reached out to me and with a shared concern for the welfare of these children decided to collaborate with me on the fundraising initiative. Simon recently visited the orphanage and school in Cameroon and is attempting to help raise the money for the new facility through his Art for Humanity charitable society. We have a long way to go, but I am hopeful that as word spreads, as books sell, and as the art of these children touches the hearts of many, we will be able to raise the money so these children can have a new, safe and secure place to live and learn.

Dawn, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My father (may he rest in peace) was an orphan growing up in New Westminster, BC, Canada. He was in and out of the orphanage as couples decided they wanted him then would take him back. He had one foster mother, Grandma Norris we called her, who would hear he was back in the orphanage and would go and fetch him. Grandma Norris had two deaf children. As a young girl, I was fascinated as I watched their young children who could barely speak signing with their parents. And so was planted my interest in hearing loss and deafness. After graduating from high school in 1983, I pursued an undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree in Linguistics through the University of Victoria immediately followed by a Master of Science degree in Human Communication Disorders (audiology) through Dalhousie University. My first job as an audiologist was with the Central Vancouver Island Health Unit in Nanaimo, BC. From there, my young family and I relocated to Peace River, Alberta where I provided service to patients as the sole audiologist in the region for four years. With impending cuts to healthcare in Alberta, we moved back to BC where I procured a position in private practice for a year and half, providing diagnostic and hearing aid services to an adult clientele. In the summer of 1997, I went on a humanitarian trip to a school and orphanage for deaf children in Vietnam. I was bit by the bug and my travelling DNA was set in motion. January of 1998, I moved to Kuwait with two young children in tow, joining a large healthcare team with the Kuwait-Dalhousie Project. When the project ended in May 2000, we left the sands of Kuwait for the long, cold winters of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. While in Yellowknife, we took a year’s leave of absence to do a one year stint in England. One final year in Yellowknife and we headed back to the Middle East, this time for eight years in Saudi Arabia where I was the head of a new audiology unit at a large rehabilitation hospital. I was responsible for starting the clinic from the bottom up which involved writing all the policies and procedures, ordering equipment, training staff, designing programs and collaborating with other unit heads (NICU, oncology, hearing aids, cochlear implants), and designing a student internship program. When it was time to leave Saudi Arabia, still interested in remaining international. I returned to university where I completed a Master of Education degree specializing in teaching English as an additional language. We then said farewell to the desert sands once more and headed to the frozen steppes of Mongolia. Five incredibly rewarding years of teaching in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia were followed by four equally rewarding years in Yaoundé, Cameroon, Africa. Last year, June 2022, I repatriated to Canada. I signed a one year contract with the government of the Northwest Territories and essentially returned to my old job providing audiological services to small Inuit communities in the Kitikmeot region of Nunavut. This past June, I relocated to the lower mainland of BC and in September I commenced my job teaching English Language Learners (ELL) and children for whom English is a second dialect (indigenous children) for the first time in a Canadian public school system. In addition to audiology and teaching, I am also the published author of 15 children’s picture books. Many of my books have been inspired by the children I have worked with in two exceptional careers. Some are just plain silly and I always get an incredible sense of satisfaction when children (and adults) enjoy my stories.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

Without question. If you told me when I was 20 that I would be a teacher one day, though, I would have laughed. I was so incredibly shy and introverted that I could never imagine getting up in front of a room full of students. Over the years, I believe I have grown in this respect, but introversion will always be a part of who I am. It brings me such incredible joy to watch my students learn. It’s amazing to work with children for whom English is not just their second language, but sometimes their third, fourth, or even fifth. As for audiology, so many have seen online videos of children (even infants) hearing for the first time with hearing aids or a cochlear implant. Believe me, they are all not laughs and giggles. For some, hearing sound for the first time is very scary and the tears fall out of fear. Those viewers have not all experienced telling a parent that their child is hearing-impaired or deaf, nor have they experienced all the emotion that goes with that. I still remember my first cochlear implant patient. He was a 62 year old Saudi man. He had his own business and his children said he had become more and more socially isolated. They told me, through very grateful tears, that his cochlear implant had brought him back to life. That’s when you know what you do is worth everything you’ve done. I know through my work that I have helped change people’s lives in a very positive way and that is such an incredible feeling.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

You have to be a good listener. You must be observant and proactive, sensitive and caring, an advocate for those you support.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.dawndoig.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/firstsat50.inspiredtowrite/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Shoebears/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-doig
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShoebearDawnD
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@dawndoig8252
• Other: https://linktr.ee/firstsat50.inspiredtowrite https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17568616.Dawn_Doig https://readersfavorite.com/rfreviews/search?search=dawn+doig