Recently, Seva and the global campaign against preventable blindness received some very encouraging news. For the first time in history, the number of people suffering from blindness is decreasing according to new figures released by the World Health Organization (WHO).

According to new WHO estimates:

• 39 million are blind (down from 45 million)
• 246 million have significant visual impairment (down from 314 million)

Peter Ackland, CEO of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness explains, “These figures are really encouraging as for the first time we have a clear indication of the downward trend in the absolute number of visually impaired people in the world…this success is attributable to the efforts of the many governments and international agencies involved in the VISION 2020: The Right to Sight Global Initiative. For over 30 years, Seva's pioneering, results-driven, comprehensive approach has helped serve the world's most vulnerable populations with eye care services.

In the past year alone, Seva-supported programs served over 700,000 people in many of the poorest and most remote communities of the globe.

Recent Program Highlights:

CAMBODIA
Seva’s eye care programs in Cambodia are growing at an impressive rate. The entire country had only 5 ophthalmologists when Seva began working in the region in 1998.  Our program has trained an additional 4 bringing the total to 9.  Seva's Cambodia based staff, with the help of volunteer ophthalmologists, perform over 25% of the cataract surgeries in the entire country.  

Seva Foundation and our sister organization, Seva Canada, recently sponsored surgical eye camps in Battambang, Siem Reap and Banteay Meanchey provinces.

A 30% increase in the number of sight restoring surgeries has recently taken place.  Tibetan doctors throughout the country performed over 5,000 sight restoring surgeries and were able to upgrade their technical skills through training conducted by volunteer ophthalmologists from North America and Nepal.

Seva helped launch Tibet's first eye hospital, the Kham Eye Center.  This brand new non-profit facility is dedicated to clinical services, research, and training in the prevention and treatment of eye diseases.  The hospital brings much needed eye care services to over three million nomadic people throughout the Kham region

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