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.
Restoring sight looks different in every area. No two communities, geographies, or cultures are the same – we work closely with local partners to understand what prevents people from accessing eye care and what we can do about it.
Vision Centers (VCs) are one way we achieve this. These local establishments are equipped to meet 80% of all eye care needs, and refer patients who require more specialized care to a partner hospital. In the past five years, through your support, we’ve established 139 VCs in remote areas of the world, creating life-changing access to eye care for millions along the way. Read below for four different types of VCs:
At the tender age of 11, Pisey is already studying the Khmer language and learning to write in its formal, more difficult form. But she doesn’t stop there; she also draws pictures to accompany her writing. So it was surprising when Pisey’s mom, Dai Vanneth, observed that something was amiss with Pisey’s eyes; they watered while she slept.
Wavy Gravy and a few hundred friends are in the building!
Taj Mahal and Maria Muldaur. Photo by Bob Minkin
They came in plaid. They came in voluminous pants and retina-searing tie dye, often as one outfit. They convened to celebrate a man known for his Woodstock quote but famous for his huge heart. Wavy Gravy’s birthday concert benefiting Seva was a good old-fashioned lovefest, brimming with soul. And bubbles.
Yep, and a popular fundraiser for Seva returns in person!
It was raining in Portland, OR, but the Balaji Temple was aglow with partygoers wearing traditional Indian colors: saffron yellows, scarlets, and magentas. Onstage was Indian-American singing group Soor Aur Saptak (SAS) holding its 12th annual concert benefiting Seva.
It’s 1978 in Michigan. A clown, a guru, and a doctor walk into a cabin. The clown says, “What I have in mind is eye care for 400,000.” The guru says “See here now.” The doctor says, “Brilliant. We can do that.”
A Seva-supported Vision Center in Madhya Pradesh, India in collaboration with our partner hospital Sadguru Netra Chikitsalaya (SNC).
From education to eyeglasses, from cataract surgery to cameras that diagnose, your support has helped people around the world. Thanks to you, Seva has provided vital eye care services to 57 million people in the world, including more than 6.5 million people in the last year alone. Seva’s vision is a world in which no one lives with avoidable blindness.
They’re smart. They’re original. They’re invested in others.
Meet the inaugural Seva Squad, young artists and activists eager to make the world a better place. From stories that explore not only vision problems but the stigma that can come with it, to video and photo streams, these projects reflect the talent and compassion of their creators.
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.
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.
