Seva Canada: A Solution in Sight

It’s eye camp season again in Tibet. Each day hundreds of blind Tibetans are being screened by Seva for eye problems and scores of people blinded by cataracts are receiving sight-restoring surgery.

Seva Canada has been working for over 27 years to restore sight and prevent blindness in the developing world. We’ve been working in Tibet since 1995, where we are the dominant eye-care provider, doing two-thirds of all cataract surgeries.

Worldwide 45 million people are blind, but people don’t go blind by the millions. They go blind one personal tragedy at a time. Here is one story about someone who was blind and had her sight restored by Seva thanks to the generosity of Seva’s donors.

Last autumn in Chamdo, Tibet, a little 7-year-old boy led his blind mother by the hand to a Seva surgical eye camp. Dekyi is a 48-year-old single mother with 6 children depending on her.

Dekyi told Sonam from Seva’s Tibet office, “I never had a husband, but I have two children. Dorjee is the younger one and he brought me here. The older one, my daughter, is at home herding the animals. I became an orphan when I was just 5. My only surviving family member was my older brother and he died 3 years ago.”

She groaned, but continued with a trembling voice. “I lost my sight two years ago and since then I have been depending on Dorjee and my 12-year-old daughter for living. I hope that my sight will be restored from this operation. There is a huge amount of debt mounted from my brother’s illness and death that I need to paid off and I need to free Dorjee for schooling and to raise my brother’s four children. Their mother died five years ago and left all the kids for my brother to raise. His death left no choice for the kids than to depend on me.”

She continued. “I am Dekyi. You know my that name means ‘happiness’ in Tibetan, but I’ve never been happy once in my life. My life has been all about death, loneliness, debts and now blindness. Often, I think I must have been a bad person in my previous life and that my bad karma is causing all this pain.”

When called to the examination room, Dekyi quickly pulled herself together, stood up with the support of her stick and called for Dorjee who was outside playing with other children. All of the sudden, Dekyi looked pale and restless. She fumbled with her hair and pressed it down at the back and said, “This is it. The only chance I have got. What if my blindness is diagnosed as untreatable?”

Dorjee led her by the hand to the examination room. With Dorjee’s help, she placed herself on a chair in front of the slit lamp. A few minutes later, she was diagnosed with bilateral cataracts and scheduled for a surgery in the afternoon on the same day. Dorjee rushed to her and held her from her behind and buried his head into her coat and cried for a long time. He shed tears for the joy of a new hope and for all the pain borne all the years by her mother and himself. Dekyi thanked and prayed for the Buddha, drawing her palms together at her chest, and then spoke with a tearful face, “I am now feeling happy and happy for the first time in my life.” She wiped her tears with her right-hand sleeve and then followed Dorjee for lunch. Dekyi was operated in that afternoon.

The next day, Dekyi had her vision tested and it was 6/9. She and Dorjee came to thank the Seva staff and to say goodbye. She looked much more tidy on that day than she did when she arrived at the camp. Her black hair was neat, she was smiling and she walked without the aid of her stick.

Carefully taking off her new sunglasses, she expressed her deep appreciation to Seva and asked that a particular message be conveyed to Seva’s donors. “Please tell all the people in your organization. They are the ones who have helped me end my bad karma and bring a glimpse of light to my life!” Tears of happiness were rolling down her cheeks as she said it.

Please consider supporting Seva Canada’s sight programs by becoming a monthly donor or giving the gift of sight. Call 604-713-6622 or visit our website at www.seva.ca.

On Wednesday, we received the most delightful letter from 7-year-old Sam Ng and his mother, Franzi.

Sam had been inspired by the pink breast cancer ribbons and other similar campaigns and decided to create his own colour and design of ribbon.

What he came up with was a beautiful, multi-coloured ribbon. As a member of the Bahá’í Faith, Sam wanted the ribbons to foster religious tolerance among his fellow Canadians. He sold the ribbons and the sign on his box read: By wearing this ribbon, I pledge to respect people of all faiths and religions.

Below that it said that the donations for the ribbons would go to Seva Canada.

Sam took his box everywhere he went. At times it took a lot of courage for him to approach strangers and ask them to buy and wear one of his ribbons. But he persisted.

Sam raised $80 for Seva’s sight restoration programs!

We at Seva Canada think Sam is marvelous and we hope you do too. Please comment on this post and send Sam a message of support for his amazing dedication and kindness.

Thank you, Sam!

The following is a special post by Laura Spencer, a Seva volunteer:

I have been privileged to work with Seva projects in Guatemala that have been developed by amazing Seva staff. The highlight so far has been Seva’s three-day eye care outreach excursion to isolated villages, reaching indigenous Guatemalans who had never received eye care services before!

The three-day eye camp was funded and organized by Seva, with community development links made between the eye hospital – Vincent Pescadore in the northern region of Guatemala – and the community health promoters in various villages.

A crew of six Guatemalan eye clinic workers from Vincent Pescadore and I made the journey into the hot jungles of Guatemala’s mountainous central region. We ventured off with supplies of glasses, instruments and charts. After a four-hour drive, we arrived in Coban, the nearest town.

Outside of Coban, we transported ourselves and the supplies into a pick-up truck along with some local villagers. We made the slow, bumpy ride along the uneven, rocky road through mountains of corn and coffee fields to the community of Chilten.

The road was long, with a broken down van on the way holding us up. The difficulty in reaching the community was a testament to the difficulty the people have in reaching services on their own. Many of them had trekked even further from Chilten, from surrounding villages even deeper in the mountains.

An hour and a half later, we arrived! Over 500 people were waiting in line to receive eye care. Excitement was in the air! The eye camp was set up in a school and the children were given the day off. As a result, they were either getting their eyes checked or running around adding to the excitement!

The organizing staff quickly set up six stations for smooth service delivery. They included an area for registration, for a visual acuity exam, a consultation with the optometrist, a meeting room for cataract patients, and another location for dispensing eye glasses.

For patients in need of cataract surgeries, transportation to Vincent Pescadore, food, and accommodation were free of charge. Those in need of glasses were provided with them at low cost or free of charge. It is such an amazing opportunity for these people and it was priceless for me to see the people’s faces as they went through the emotions of being offered free surgery and eye care.

Seva was one of the supporters, having developed the community link between the health promoters and the hospital Vincent Pescadore. The local volunteers were an integral part of the process, acting as translators for the hundreds of indigenous people who could not speak Spanish, but the Mayan language Quechi.

The first day was a great success! Thirty cataract patients were driven the 5 hours and back with free food, board and surgeries fully paid for by Seva and partners.

My personal contribution has been conducting research for my MA on why so few rural women are taking advantage of free surgeries, as is also the case in most developing countries. With the help from volunteers with translating, I surveyed or interviewed over 80 women over the course of the weekend, collecting information regarding the barriers to service for themselves and with regard to the women in need of eye care who were not present. I also enjoyed the company of the local children who were running around the school and waiting for me to finish interviewing their mothers and grandmothers!

The second and third day we drove a few hours more to another village, meeting the needs of the other surrounding communities. More free surgeries and eye care services were delivered and received.

Just before leaving the last eye camp, a truckload of the first patients from two days before arrived. They were returning from the northern clinic where their surgeries were conducted by Guatemalan surgeons. Their post-operative eyes were healing behind their large, protective sunglasses. Accompanied by the community volunteers, they made their way home, with new hope for survival, with the ability to contribute to their family again and with an increased quality of life.

The six of us made the four-hour trip back to the northern eye clinic which is located in the largest, poorest and most secluded province of Guatemala, El Peten. Once we arrived, the patients from the same day and the others from the day before were either waiting for their surgery or waiting a day to have a post-operative examination. Whether through translation or directly in Spanish, the patients shared their fears and excited anticipation of their restored vision.

I will remember well many of the patients. In particular, I will remember one man who said to me, “Vision is the most important thing. Without it, all is painful.” Another patient, an older woman in traditional dress, will remain in my memory because of her smile. She smiled throughout the whole experience, which is unusual for the culture (but she would not smile for the camera, more common for the culture!). I was honoured to see her through the whole process: from the line-up for services, the waiting room for cataract care, on the bus up to the northern clinic, before, during and after surgery, at meals in the hospital and finally to see her off as she got on the minivan back to her village.

Thank you to all the donors, sponsors and Seva staff for making this eye camp a success!

Yesterday I spent the afternoon at Benwell-Atkins (RRD) in Vancouver checking our new 2010 calendar on press. What fun to see the gorgeous photos come to life! Talk about “hot off the press” – the ink was still wet when I was checking the samples and marveling at the colours.

Calendars will be ready for sale from the Seva office by June 22nd. Our huge thanks to photographer Jon Kaplan for donating the images; to Gregory Green for his lovely design; and all the folks at Benwell-Atkins for their work on this job. It’s a beauty!

All proceeds from the sale of Seva Canada’s annual calendar go to restore sight and prevent blindness in the developing world. Call the office at 604-713-6622 to order yours!

Here’s the back cover:

In February, I wrote about a little girl in Madagascar with such severe and unusual myopia (nearsightedness) that there was no help available to her in her own country.

This morning we received these photos of 8-year-old Andoniaina (Ando for short) wearing her new glasses specially made for her in Canada.

Ando lives on a small island in the Mozambique Channel, off the southwest coast of Madagascar. To seek help, she and her father travelled one hour by speedboat to Tulear on the mainland, then drove 1,000 kilometres to the capital of Antananarivo to get her eyes examined. They were eventually referred to a hospital in Antsirabe, 170 km south of the capital for a second opinion. That’s where Dr. Henry Nkumbe, Seva’s partner in Madagascar, saw the little girl and asked Seva Canada for help.

Seva then called on longterm supporter and optometrist, Dr. Larry Louie, for his expertise. Together Dr. Louie and his colleague Wayne Trieu of I-Lab Optical in Edmonton created a very special pair of glasses. The glasses were then hand-delivered to Madagascar in time for Christmas by a representative of Sherritt International Corporation, a Canadian resources company.

“Something like this is not usually done and isn’t readily available. That’s what made it challenging,” said Dr. Louie. The typical eyeglass prescription is 2.00 to -3.00 points, but Ando has a prescription of -27.00 points for her right eye and -23.50 points for her left eye. This means that, without glasses, Ando can’t see much beyond the tip of her nose. Ando was essentially blind and would not have been able to see the faces of her family.

To keep the glasses from becoming too thick and thus brushing against her eyelashes, Dr. Louie and optician Wayne Trieu used special myodisc lenses with two bi-concave lenses on the front and back of each lens. Another challenge was getting a frame that was strong and durable and that would last a long time.

Andoniaina’s story and the way in which Canadians in three provinces came together to help her was featured in the Edmonton Journal and on Global news.

On behalf of Andoniaina, her family and our partner in Madagascar, Seva Canada would like to thank everyone who helped change this young girl’s life by giving her the gift of sight.

Here at Seva we call the acts of generosity and kindness that all our donors and partners in the field display, on a daily basis, compassion in action. Vancouver Talmud Torah’s Grade 7 class call those same acts a mitzvah.

A new program at Talmud Torah, called The Mitzvah of Valuing Philanthropy, has students researching charitable organizations that provide a wide range of services – locally and internationally. The students give a presentation on their chosen charity to the class and then the students together decide how to allocate grants to the different charities. This year, $18,000 was raised by students from their bar/bat mitzvah gifts, by the students’ families and community donors.

Seva Canada was very grateful to be included as one of the 20 charities in the program this year by students Shakaed Greif, Lena Arbetova and Adi Pick. The girls visited the Seva office, combed through our website and presented Seva’s cause to their class. They were obviously compelling as Seva received a cheque for $850 at yesterday’s Ceremony of Giving.

We are so grateful to Vancouver Talmud Torah and to Shakaed, Lena and Adi for their compassion, service and mitzvah. We promise to use the funds wisely and well and will dedicate them to restoring sight to children.

Seva Canada Board Member, Susan Erdmann, writes:

Prior to my leaving for Nepal in March, I gave my presentation on the Tibetan surgical eye camps to a class of 11 year olds (5th graders) at Mitchell Elementary in Richmond, BC. It was wonderful how well they responded to the visuals and story around eye camps and what it is like to lose sight from cataracts. The students asked lots of questions and were very engaged. When I left, I gave them each a Seva Gift of Sight catalogue and told them that everyone can make a difference and help restore sight.

I left quite pleased that they had responded so well. But what surprised and thrilled me far more was an email from the teacher, Miss Anita Lau, on my return from Nepal, telling me that the children had some money to give to Seva and asking me to return to the school to receive it. On Friday May 22nd, I returned to Mitchell Elementary and in front of the entire school, students from the class presented me with a cheque for $361.83.

How did they do it? They told me that, having decided to raise some money for Seva and under the teacher’s guidance, they brainstormed what they wanted to do and how they would do it. With their Seva brochures, they visited each classroom and told the other students about Seva and that what they were going to do raise some money to give people their sight back. They were going to hold a bake sale. They made posters to advertise, baked the goodies themselves and held the sale. They sold out and raised enough money to help restore the sight of 7 people.

But much more happened than being able to give Seva some money for the sight programs. These children learned many life lessons about what individuals can collectively achieve – how to work as a group for a common and worthwhile cause, the payoff of working towards a goal through personal effort, the satisfaction of giving to a wonderful cause and helping others in need, and the sheer joy of giving. They were so proud of themselves – as they should be.

The teacher, Miss Lau empowered and guided these young students, allowing them to discover for themselves what might be possible. I applaud Miss Lau and her students for a job well done. These students will have this experience for the rest of their lives, growing up with an expanded view of the world and how they can effect positive change in it.

A huge thank you from Seva!

On April 28, the award-winning Canadian musician, Terry Kelly, performed a fundraising concert for Seva at the Ottawa school of Seva’s longtime supporter, Alistair Butt. Terry had been impressed with Alistair’s “Eyeballs for Eyesight campaign” and offered to do a charity concert for Alistair, telling Alistair he could give the money to whatever charity he liked. Alistair picked Seva, which Terry fully supported. Both Alistair and Terry know first hand about vision loss. When Alistair was younger, he had severe sight problems and had to wear a patch for 10 years. Terry Kelly is blind.

The event raised $1,231 for Seva Canada’s sight restoration and blindness prevention programs in the developing world. $1000 was donated by Terry Kelly and Alistair raised $231 through the sale of chocolate eyeballs. Every child who attended contributed a toonie.

Terry Kelly’s enthusiasm for life and sheer determination have gained him recognition as an accomplished athlete, award-winning singer, songwriter, entertainer, motivational speaker and a lover of life.

Terry was a double silver medalist at the 1979 Canadian Track Championships, a member of the Canadian Track Team that competed in the 1980 Paralympics, and distinguished himself as the third blind person in the world to run the mile in under five minutes.

This Newfoundland native has been making music since his childhood years. He has recorded six full-length recordings, was nominated for four Canadian Country Music Awards and a JUNO, and has received seven East Coast Music Awards.

Seva is deeply grateful to both Alistair and Terry for their generosity and compassion and for giving the gift of sight to people in the developing world.

Susan Erdmann, board member, Penny Lyons, executive director, and Heather Wardle, development director are all on the road doing a series of Seva shows in Victoria, Nanaimo and on Gabriola.

Susan Erdmann, still in culture shock and jetlagged from her recent sojourn in far west Nepal, is having trouble adjusting to Western bathroom facilities and mattresses. She’s not used to hot water (well, running water for that matter), electricity and flush toilets. She still has trouble putting paper down the toilet; what’s that about?! The sum total of Susan’s expenses for her two weeks in far west Nepal, where she was photographing the primary eye care centres for Seva, were $157.00. Her most expensive room was $4!

Tonight in Victoria Susan will present her show for donors on the eye camps in Tibet which she photographed, at her own expense, in 2007. Yay Susan!

Seva’s partner in eastern Africa is the Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology, popularly known as KCCO. Located in Moshi, Tanzania, within sight of Kilimanjaro, KCCO provides eye care services, ophthalmology training and resources to 9 eastern African countries – Tanzania, Madagascar, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Ethiopia and Zambia.

This short video gives an overview of KCCO’s work bringing sight and preventing blindness in eastern Africa.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMYOYSXlpLw]

Today I’m heading out to Vancouver airport to visit our great friends at Worldwide Animal Travel who, together with KLM Cargo, very kindly ship children’s glasses to Africa for Seva. Three boxes containing 1,066 of lovely children’s eyeglass frames were donated to Seva Canada by OGI Canada Inc. and soon they’ll be winging their way to Kilimanjaro. Big thanks to Dick Murao at KLM Cargo for his compassion.

I think this is the fourth shipment of children’s frames I’ve sent in the last 2 years. Although adult glasses are easily procured in eastern Africa, children’s frames, especially the infant ones with hooks for behind the ears, are as precious as gold dust. Seva Canada and our partner in Africa, the Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology, is extremely grateful to OGI Canada Inc. for this very generous donation. Thanks Guy, Jamie and Sue for all your kindness!

The number one intervention for children with low vision is refraction and the prescription of the appropriate glasses. When I was in Tanzania in September 2008 attending a workshop on childhood cataract, I heard many sad and frustrating stories about the lack of kids’ glasses. A young girl was washing in the river and her glasses fell off and were lost. By the time she was seen by an eye specialist two years later and given a new pair of glasses, she had lost much of her vision, never to be recovered.

One ophthalmologist from Gondar in Ethiopia told me, “There are so many children with uncorrected refractive error. I work 700 miles from the capital, Addis Ababa, and even if parents can afford them and want to buy children’s glasses, it is impossible to get them. They may not even find children’s frames in the capital.”

Without glasses, children cannot reach their potential and many risk blindness from ambylopia. Providing children with the glasses they need is an urgent issue. Thank you OGI!

Dr. Larry Brilliant, one of the founders of Seva, has left his position as the director or Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org and will now oversee the “Skoll Urgent Threats Fund” established by eBay co-founder Jeff Skoll. The Skoll Foundation issued a press release about Dr. Brilliant’s appointment on April 14, 2009.

Dr. Brilliant is an American physician, epidemiologist, technologist, author and philanthropist. From 1973 to 1976 he participated in the successful World Health Organization (WHO) smallpox eradication program. Following the successful eradication of smallpox, Dr. Brilliant and others came together to form Seva in an effort to reduce human suffering.

Seva means “service” in Sanskrit and the eclectic group of doctors and others decided to focus their compassion in action on the issue of preventable and treatable blindness. Prior to joining Google.org, Dr. Brilliant was the Executive Director of Seva Foundation, Seva Canada‘s sister organization in Berkeley, CA. Seva now works in 7 countries – Nepal, Tibet, India, Tanzania, Guatemala, Cambodia and Egypt — to create sustainable eye-care programs, to restore sight and prevent blindness.

According to the Skoll Foundation’s press release, “Brilliant will focus the new organization, the Skoll Urgent Threats Fund, on identifying and supporting innovative high-impact initiatives to combat climate change, water scarcity, pandemics, nuclear proliferation and Middle East conflict.”

With the swine flu threat growing daily, Dr. Brilliant will be an extremely busy man. Everyone at Seva Canada congratulates Larry on his new post and wishes him the very best.

Accepting the 2006 TED Prize, Dr. Larry Brilliant talked about how smallpox was eradicated from the planet, and called for a new global system that can identify and contain pandemics before they spread.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNhiHf84P9c]

1. Rubbing eyes, blinking excessively
2. Squinting or covering one eye
3. Holding a book close to the face
4. Losing his or her place while reading
5. Headaches, nausea and dizziness
6. Excessive clumsiness
7. Tilting the head to one side
8. Frequently day dreaming
9. Using a finger to read
10. Performing below potential

Although newborns are able to see, vision improves and develops over time as the use of the eyes increases. For proper vision to develop, it is vital that there is a sharp image on the retina. It is very important that children receive proper eye care and that any problems are addressed quickly. All of Seva Canada’s programs place emphasis on reaching children, even in remote areas, and ensuring that they get care. Click here to join us and save a child from a lifetime of blindness.

Thank you to Granville EYELAND for these 10 tips.

A huge thank you to Shelagh Smith, Rob McClure and all the people in Whitehorse who made last night’s fundraiser for Seva Canada (www.seva.ca) a big success. About 80 people attended and raised $1,000 for the Kham Eye Centre in Dartsedo.

Tibet has the highest rate of blindness in the world. Cataract is the leading cause of blindness in the Kham region, as it is in other Tibetan regions. Cataracts can be removed, and sight restored, with a relatively simple and highly cost-effective operation costing about $50, yet the cataract surgical coverage in the area is just 40%; 60% of patients remain untreated. Seva is trying to change this.

A 50-bed eye hospital, the Kham Eye Center, is currently being built in Dartsedo and will open in 2009. The Kham Eye Center will be a non-profit eye care institution specializing in clinical services, research, teaching and prevention and treatment of eye disease. Seva is funding human resource development, technical and managerial mentorship, and provision of ophthalmic equipment, instruments and supplies. The Kham Eye Care Center will have a multitiered pricing system to make the eye care more affordable and accessible to all patients in the community. The ultimate goal of the Kham Eye Center is to build a high-quality, sustainable, accessible, affordable eye care system.

It’s pretty amazing to think that for the price of a condo in Vancouver (even after the slump), you can equip an entire hospital, train the staff, help set up 10 vision centers and provide medical materials and surgical supplies for 4 years. Cost: $825,000. Gifts of sight for thousands of Tibetans for generations to come: priceless!

The goals are:
- to conduct a minimum of 14,000 cataract sight restoring surgeries over the next 5 years;
- to establish 10 vision centers by 2010;
- to train 10 eye doctors and 10 county level nurses;
- to establish the Center as a standard national eye hospital, using state-of-the-art technology;
- to become the model eye care program in the Kham region;
- to become an eye care training center;
- and to develop as a community ophthalmology center.

Thanks again to all the folks in Whitehorse for your generosity and compassion.

12-year-old Estefany was bullied because she had two eye conditions – strabismus (squint) and ptosis (drooping of the eyelid).

She lives in a two-room wooden house in San Jose Pinula, Guatemala with her three brothers, father and stepmother.

Her father, a farmer, makes less than $8 a day and her stepmother, a maid, who makes even less. They were unable to afford treatment for Estefany at one of the clinics they approached.

Then they found Visualiza, Seva’s partner in Guatemala, in December 2008. Estefany had first surgery in February 2009 for strabismus and the next week she had surgery for the ptosis. The surgeries have helped Estefany greatly and she has not had to deal with the pain of being called “ugly”. She does much better with her school work and has great visual acuity. Her beautiful smile speaks volumes.

To learn more about Seva’s work in Guatemala and how you can help, visit http://www.seva.ca/sevainguatemala.htm