Traveling that Last Mile

Vistaro camera in Ukraine.
Seva’s Pristine 5.0 Retinal Camera (formerly Vistaro) 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 Pristine 5.0 Retinal Camera (formerly Vistaro) – a revolutionary, wide-field retinal camera that transforms how clinics diagnose conditions affecting the back of the eye. 

Why is Pristine 5.0 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. Pristine 5.0 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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Letter from the Executive Director – Spring 2023

“There is truly no gift greater than sight – Seva can reach the most remote places where there was no eye care before.” – Ram Prasad Kandel,Former Program Director, Seva Nepal

In January 2023 I traveled to Nepal. The purpose was to meet with our program partners and the Seva staff. We used this time together to discuss our eye care roadmap for the country. 

When painted against the fact that this coming Fall we can finally celebrate the anniversary of the seminal Seva Nepal Blindness Study, the conversations and connection become more of a homecoming than a traditional field visit. 

Back in 1980, Seva founders (scientists, activists and academics) joined forces with the World Health Organization and the government of Nepal thanks to funding from the Netherlands. The results were published in our landmark report, The Epidemiology of Blindness in Nepal, and several journal articles. These findings became a key component, and dare I say, influencer, of the World Health Organization’s Nepal Blindness Program.

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Clearing the Path to Higher Ground

Mr. Ram Prasad Kandel talking with patients after their cataract surgeries.

Ram Prasad Kandel Retires After 25 Years of Caring Service

It’s not hyperbole to say there ain’t no mountain high enough to deter Seva’s Nepal Program Director, Ram Prasad Kandel. For the past 25-plus years, he’s been on the road with Seva, traversing hilly terrain and rough roads in Nepal, India, and Cambodia to support eye camps, establish Vision Centers, and connect with the people who come seeking help.

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Welcome Dr. Binita Sharma

Seva is pleased to officially welcome Dr. Binita Sharma to the staff as the Country Director in Nepal. 

Dr. Sharma transitioned from Seva Foundation’s clinical advisor for programs in Nepal to the Country Director, picking up where Ram Prasad Kandel left off.

Dr. Sharma was the Chief Medical Director at Kirtipur Eye Hospital for three years; she has been working as an ophthalmologist for the last 10 years, with a fellowship in Cornea and a special interest in community ophthalmology. Working both at a clinical and academic level, she is at the forefront of eye care and health in Nepal. With a strong passion for community and communication, Dr. Binita works to bring eye health to those most in need.  

She enjoys interacting with people,  and she’s a firm believer that communication and teamwork is the key to an effective outcome in any field.

“I believe it is in the heart of the community that we need to reach – where there are patients who do not realize that their blinding condition is treatable”

He believed he would never see again. You made sure he did.

“Che ndaroviai,” an expression in Guarani, translates into Spanish to mean “I don’t believe.” These were also Librado Benitez’s first words after he was told that he would regain his vision. 

For over a year Librado, a 41-year-old farmer from the Department of San Pedro, north of Asunción in Paraguay, lived with an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. 

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