ROCHESTER, N.Y. — It’s not something you see every day, a dictionary showing Ethiopian sign language. It’s just one of the tools Dr. Catherine Clark uses on her trips to the country. 

As an audiologist at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Dr. Clark was invited to travel to Ethiopia in 2014. The goal was to provide families there with resources to help deaf and hard-of-hearing children. 

“I’m seeing children 3, 4, 5 and adults some of whom have never heard before," said Dr. Clark. 

On her first trip to Ethiopia, Dr. Clark brought a portable hearing machine. She worked with doctors in a small village seeing hundreds of patients a day. 

“There's people waiting all day, there's always a line," said Dr. Clark. "They’re coming from miles and miles away often."

All waiting to get their hearing checked many for the first time. 

“They would look at me like what’s next? I didn’t have a what’s next at that point," explained Dr. Clark. 

What’s next was returning the following year with dozens of hearing aids, all donated to help those in Ethiopia hear. 

"I’m seeing eyes wide as they take in the sound. I had one young man start singing," Dr. Clark said. 

Dr. Clark returned each year, bringing more hearing aids and helping more children. She eventually trained an assistant to help those in Ethiopia get screenings when she returned to Rochester. On her most recent trip though, Dr. Clark was the one receiving a gift. 

“There was this girl throwing rose petals at my feet. I knew something was going on. They opened the curtain and I just cried," Clark said.

The lab in Ethiopia where she spent so many years is now renamed in her honor. In her new center, Dr. Clark hopes to expand into newborn testing and make more hearing aids available. 

She is making no plans to stop serving the community that feels like family. 

“I’ll go as long as I’m needed. Maybe eventually I won’t be needed because it’s so sustainable," Dr. Clark said.