For more than 25 years, Seva Foundation has been steadily changing the view in Cambodia. Since 1999, Seva’s long-term partnerships with national ministries, hospitals, and local nonprofits have helped reduce the country’s blindness rate from 1.2% to just 0.37%.
In just the past year, Seva’s teams were everywhere at once: in government meetings helping shape national eye health policy, and out on village roads delivering care to people who’d never seen a doctor. More than 9,000 surgeries were performed, including 7,500 cataract operations that gave people back something they thought was gone forever. Nine vision centers across seven provinces are now serving over 1.4 million people with eye exams, glasses, and referrals.
At Angkor Hospital for Children, Seva’s support kept the country’s leading specialized children’s eye clinic running, reaching more than 20,000 kids last year alone. Teachers were trained to spot vision problems in classrooms. Surgeons were mentored. New tools and technology were introduced, all with the goal of building something that will outlast any single program or donor.
“Our work touches all lives, but it is in the lives of elders, children, women, people with disabilities, and other vulnerable groups that we bring the biggest changes and the most help”, said Cambodia county director Ayphalla Te. The journey isn’t without challenges, but the direction is clear: a Cambodia where quality eye care is accessible, local, and built to last.
Ayphalla Te
“For someone whose mantra is ‘compassion for all living things,’
I couldn’t have asked for anything more gratifying and exciting than working on eye health.“
Cambodia Country Director
