The parents of a partially deaf girl in Yamagata hope to re-create in Japan the supportive atmosphere for parents of disabled children that they encountered while living in the United States.
Andy and Junko Meeko took their family -- two daughters and one son at the time -- to Oregon so they could be together when baby daughter Sophia underwent a cochlear implant in December 1999. Sophia, now 5, was born deaf and spent the first half of her life in complete silence.
The family went to the U.S. for the operation because the procedure was not widely available at that time in Japan.