Seva Canada: A Solution in Sight

It’s always a challenge to convey to our donors just how much their gifts accomplish overseas.

Though the programs are far away, we try to use our newsletter, website and blog to show supporters just what a tremendous difference gifts of sight make.

In mid-May, we took Seva on the road to Victoria, Nanaimo and Gabriola. It was a chance for us to thank our supporters and to show, through presentations by Penny Lyons (Seva’s executive director), Susan Erdmann (board member) and Dr. Martin Spencer (ophthalmologist and board member) what our donors’ gifts have accomplished.

Marty gave a powerful presentation on the history and work of Seva. Susan followed with her visual eyewitness report of the Seva eye camps in Tibet, “Tibet: Saving Sight on the Roof of the World”.

Here’s some of the comments we received after the shows:

“Really great show! The photos from both Marty and Susan of the incredible joy on the patient’s faces after the surgery are beautiful. It affected us deeply. What a great cause, Seva.” Jill and Jay, Gabriola

“I very much liked the way the evening was organized. The personal touches made us feel so welcome. The refreshments were perfect and the cake for Steve, aside from being delicious, was such a personal touch.” Eveline, Gabriola

“Very good meeting last night. Great atmosphere and well put together. Enjoyed it a lot and would have liked more discussion at the end.” Nicholas, Victoria

Our thanks to all the volunteers and supporters who helped make all three evenings a great success: to Renee Olson, Ashley West, and Helene Cyr in Victoria; to Neil Smith and the Malaspina Theatre staff in Nanaimo; to Gabriola Food Market on Gabriola; to Susan Spinola from Seattle who was so helpful in Nanaimo and on Gabriola; to Carol Mckee for her hours of clean-up on Gabriola; to Hartley & Marks Publishers for the donated Paperblanks; and of course to Susan and Marty for their wonderful presentations.

Finally, our thanks to Dirk Heydemann, a professional photographer and friend of Marty’s, who took photos of the Nanaimo event and has created a lovely slideshow.

To see the photos visit http://www.heydemannphoto.com/index2.php?v=v1, click “Clients” from the bottom menu and enter “Seva” as the password.

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.

On Friday May 8, Talia Designs held a fashion show that helped raise funds for Seva’s sight programs in the developing world. The show was held from 6-9 pm at the Autumn Brook Art Gallery, 1545 West 4th Avenue in Vancouver and raised $600 to restore sight and prevent blindness.

Penny Lyons, Seva’s Executive Director, was there to enjoy the fun along with over 100 attendees. Penny said, “Not only were the clothes beautiful, but every woman wearing them looked stunning. From the moment the doors opened at 6 pm, it was like a feeding frenzy — people went crazy for the clothes and were buying them all evening.”

Our huge thanks to Michael and Nurit Perla for this great event and for your generosity to Seva. To learn more about Talia Designs visit www.talia-designer-clothes.com or contact nuritp@shaw.ca or call 604-734-2173.

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!