Seva is a global nonprofit eye care organization that works with local communities around the world to develop self-sustaining programs that preserve and restore sight.
Since 1978, Seva has provided sight-saving surgeries, eyeglasses, medicine, and other eye care services to more than 40 million people in under-served communities.
You already know that love sparks a lot of goodness. When we sprinkle it around, and put our love into action, the world becomes better. And you do it through Seva everyday! Did you know that many of the ‘Originals’ who jump started our mission were also couples in love? The love they carried for each other was put into action towards a greater cause – spreading joy.
This Valentine’s Day, meet a few of these Seva Sweethearts:
When you think of “disruptive and revolutionary tech,” what comes to mind?
Major companies, start-ups, a laboratory on the brink of discovery – but what about nonprofits?
You read that right, nonprofits. We know nonprofits don’t often come top of mind as being “disruptive,” but we’re here to paint a new picture. Compassion has always been an important driver of innovation at Seva.
At Seva, we invest in a suite of cutting-edge and revolutionary technologies to create a world free of avoidable blindness. Leveraging millions of data points, four decades of experience, and a network of leading public health experts, engineers, and physicians, our best-in-class tech solutions revolutionize the way eye care is delivered worldwide.
“We operate at the scale of a major corporation and the nimbleness of a start-up. Straddling this balance is disrupting the future of ophthalmology and public health – for good”.
– Kate Moynihan, Executive Director, Seva Foundation.
This is the new frontier of compassion driven eye care tech that you support:
They walk the world as ophthalmologists, technicians, nurses, outreach workers, and more.
In reality, they’re heroes.
It takes a village to end avoidable blindness. Surgeons, health administrators, and so many others are crucial links in a patient’s journey to clear sight. We couldn’t do it without them.
But who are these remarkable folks? We’ve found that the best eye care professionals are right next door – members of the local community who understand what’s needed to provide culturally adept care. With your support, we invest in their world-class training at every single level – from health volunteers to highly skilled ophthalmologists. This ensures that local communities will always have access to eye care, even long after Seva’s direct involvement.
We call them the heroes next door. Meet a few of them and see why.
Photo: Bhoora Kol with his wife in their mud hut. Photograph by Apurva Shroff
Your support, through the power of sight, brings joy, independence, and freedom to communities worldwide. Bhoora Kol, a 61-year-old lively and jovial man from Madhya Pradesh, India, knows this well. He works diligently as a daily wage laborer on nearby farms, earning less than two dollars a day with just 15 days of employment per month. He lives with his wife in a mud hut, and his four sons and ten grandchildren live nearby in the same village.
Art is transformative – it enables us to see the world through a new lens and make a difference through it.
William Wolk, a talented artist, soul, and friend of Seva, knew this firsthand. His realistic portraits of former U.S. Presidents, the Dalai Lama, and Paramahansa Yogananda, among others, can be found in archives, museums, and private collections around the world. Sadly, in May, Wolk passed away after an enduring and brave battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife Marie.
A First-of-Its-Kind Plan to Eliminate Avoidable Blindness in Guatemala
Globally, 1.1 billion people live with vision impairment. In remote communities and developing countries, where access to eye care is limited, this can lead to generations of hardship. Today, we stand at an important moment in history – the beginning of the end of avoidable blindness, first in Guatemala, then across the world.
Kimm Parker wanted to create a lasting imprint in the lives of others – and she knew she could do that through Seva and restoring sight.
After receiving her graduate degree in social work, this Southern California native spent her career in community work, clinics, and eventually her own practice. “I like the idea that if you give $50, someone in Nepal who needs eye surgery can get it. This direct exchange was like magic to me,” she shared.
“Like many folks, I first learned about Seva back in the late 80s through Ram Dass. I was looking for a service organization whose work expressed my understanding of the Buddhist concept of Right Action. I appreciated the variety of projects and range of people that Seva benefited. I found the gift-giving of donations a wonderful way to spread its work among my family and friends, especially as several struggled with vision problems themselves, and I knew they would relate to the difference it was making in many people’s lives! Since my partner died a few months ago, leaving no will, it has been very challenging to settle her affairs, so I knew that I had to stop procrastinating on updating my own. FreeWill.com has guided me through doing this in a way that is easy, comprehensive and reassuring!”
Safety and quality of care are at the center of everything we do. Our partner, Dr. Samina Zamindar in Bangalore, India, recently opened the doors of her private practice to welcome 11 colleagues from Seva partner institutes for a series of safety and quality initiatives.
This joint program, called Observe, Understand, and Change, educated hospital teams with practical skills to adopt standard operative procedures to improve quality at a grassroots level, avoid medical errors, and make incident reporting a regular standard in medical settings. Two days of intensive group discussions were followed by three days of observation in their area of interest.
Drumroll please…introducing the launch of our new What’s That Seva Stuff series!
Well, let’s find out!
If you’ve ever wondered about our vibrant history, the people, ideas and solutions that make the magic of restoring sight possible, and all those untold “Seva stories” you heard through the grapevine – look no further! We dug through 40+ years of rich Seva archives, asked our teams around the world, and are here to give you that exclusive, behind-the-scenes look.
Tune in each week on our YouTube channel and social media platforms for a new edition of What’s That Seva Stuff, hosted by Dr. Suzanne Gilbert, Senior Director of Research and Strategic Opportunities!
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