Traveling that Last Mile

Vistaro camera in Ukraine.
Seva’s Vistaro camera in Ukraine.

As a global public health organization, we experience all sorts of obstacles in our pursuit of bringing equitable eye care to communities where it is most needed: geographic isolation, economic insecurity, and even war, to name a few. With your support, we work to overcome these barriers – and travel that last mile. 

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Honoring International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples

A child from Grainger Elementary School in Okanogan, WA having his eyes screened.
A child from Grainger Elementary School in Okanogan, WA having their eyes screened.

“Our strengths are in our actions – when we look, listen and learn. Strengths are not things – strengths are the good actions of how we live and treat each other.”

Elder Roy Bear Chief (Blackfoot, Siksika Nation)

Solutions Lie In Strengths

August 9 is International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. Seva is honored to have worked alongside indigenous communities for four decades, co-creating interventions that advance access to critical eye care. Throughout our journey, we’ve practiced “a strengths-based approach,” which studies in the Health Education Journal* confirm is essential to advancing health equity of indigenous populations.

Historically, public health research on indigenous communities has often taken a “deficit-based” approach, focusing on health issues/disparities within a community to find solutions. A strengths-based approach finds and builds on the innate abilities of a community or individual to promote positive health outcomes. Studies of indigenous communities from Alberta, Canada, as well as Seva’s partners around the world, emphasize the importance of centering on indigenous voices, perspectives, beliefs, and relationships (among other factors), and honoring self-determination when designing healthcare programs. 

With an estimated 476 million indigenous people across 90 countries, speaking 7,000 languages and representing 5,000 different cultures, a strengths-based approach to health care for one community may differ from another. Yet, at Seva, we believe that lasting and culturally-competent interventions for any one person begins by listening, co-learning, and collaborating with all. Read on to learn a few ways we create a strengths-based approach to eye care around the world, including indigenous peoples. 

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This camera is making history, and so are you!

Photo of the Vistaro camera being field-tested in Mozambique.

You just helped us turn a page in diagnosing eye diseases. You may remember, Seva, in partnership with Remidio Innovative Solutions, developed Vistaro – a revolutionary, wide-field retinal camera that transforms how clinics diagnose conditions affecting the back of the eye. 

Why is Vistaro so important? Most medical devices that image the back of the eye are out of reach for communities. This leaves many blindness-causing infections, including CMV retinitis – commonly found in those living with HIV – to go undiagnosed. Vistaro is cost-effective, portable, and durable – it could help reduce AIDS-related blindness by half! 

We’ve heard from our partners in Ukraine, Mozambique & India who’ve been field-testing the camera – and it’s already making waves in the community. As a Seva supporter, you have played an important part in helping to make this moment in eye tech history possible.

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