The Power of Sight

Why Sight

Welcome to a three-part podcast series by Seva Canada.  Almost everyone will need access to eye care services during their lifetime.  Sight is so much more than just good vision. For many in low- and middle-income countries, blindness and vision impairment means poverty and loss of opportunity. When you give the power of sight, you also give access to education, employment and the foundation for a better life. 1.1 billion people live with vision loss and 90% live in low- and middle-income countries where access to care is limited. And the need is growing. Estimates predict that by 2050, due to an aging and growing population, vision loss will increase by 55% or 600 million people over the next 30 years. Unless there is significant investment current eye care services are unlikely to cope with future needs. Seva Canada’s vision is a world in which no one is needlessly blind or visually impaired. Its donors, local program partners and staff around the world are working hard to ensure everyone, including the most marginalized people in need – women, children, and people living in extreme poverty and isolation - have access to high-quality care, now and in the future. Give the power of sight and transform a life today at seva.ca [https://www.seva.ca]

Development with Dignity

Jonathan Glennie said it best, “Dignity is perhaps the one thing that human beings across the globe, in myriad different contexts, most instinctively recognize and long for.”  Well-intentioned, foreign-led development in low- and middle-income countries continues to leave behind unintended consequences that can be wasteful, from expensive broken equipment that locals cannot fix to much more long-term damaging consequences.   Seva Canada recognizes that fostering our partners’ dignity – giving leadership roles, providing autonomy in decision making and equity in achievement of development – lies at the heart of all our international eye care programs. To Seva Canada, development is not simply measured by program growth and the number of eye care patients successfully served. More importantly, development must advance human dignity both for local eye care professionals and the very poor people they often serve.  Can we measure dignity? No, but we can all recognize when it is afforded to us. It involves agency, equality, individuality and respect. It betters all of our lives and leads to a level of mutual gratitude, trust, and loyalty that sustains us all. You can ensure everyone has access to the power of sight. Visit seva.ca [https://www.seva.ca/sight-women-and-girls] Learn more here. [https://www.seva.ca/news/development-dignity%20]

Equity

Everyone, regardless of where they live, their income, religion, gender and sex, deserves access to high-quality eye care. Seva Canada believes everyone deserves an equal right to sight.  The majority of the world's blind are women and girls, a fact that was discovered by Seva Canada-supported research. Seva Canada donors help women and girls overcome barriers to accessing eye care; barriers that include a lack of education and financial resources and limited decision-making power. When people can see and are able to lead healthy, productive lives, they can lift themselves and their families out of poverty. Entire communities have a chance of a better, brighter future. You can ensure everyone has access to the power of sight. Visit seva.ca [https://www.seva.ca/sight-women-and-girls] Resourses:  * seva.ca/focus [https://www.seva.ca/focus] * seva.ca/video/equal-right-sight [https://www.seva.ca/video/equal-right-sight] * seva.ca/sight-women-and-girls [https://www.seva.ca/sight-women-and-girls]