Childhood Blindness around the Globe

Around the globe, 90 million children and adolescents live with vision loss. And, 80% of what a child learns is processed visually. But, with proper access to eye care, 90% of vision loss is preventable or treatable.

Through school screenings, surgical procedures, and the distribution of free and low-cost eyeglasses, Seva and MODO along with supporters like you are bringing the world into focus to give these children a brighter future. Let's take a tour around a few of the places where Seva works to see how we are helping kids get their sight back. First, why don't we head to Nepal, the country where Seva began its work 45 years ago. Let's visit Arnav, a 10 year old whose glasses are helping him with his schoolwork.

While we’re in the neighborhood, let's head to India. Seva supports a hospital system in West Bengal that makes eye care accessible to people living in the remote islands of the Sundarbans.

One great way of creating awareness and delivering eye care to children is through school screenings. While we are in India we'll show you what a typical school screening looks like in this region and let the staff members of the local hospital tell you about their experiences working with children.

“The Seva project is working especially for children rural areas as well as in cities.”

“And our team goes and screens them and brings them here for surgery.”

“We can give them spectacles as well as the primary basic things through the eye examination.”

Children receive eye care including spectacles and surgical intervention free of cost.

“Personally, I'm very happy to working with children because it's a great pleasure and it comes from heart. There was one child from bhugaon who had cataract and he got the chance to remove the cataract. That smile I can't forget! Because he can see properly and he said thanks to me. So, it's a very big thing to me.”

“Because of Seva we are able to reach the needy and provide services free of cost. If Seva hadn’t been there, to reach people and to provide services wouldn't have been possible.”

Let's visit Cambodia next with a stop in to see Narie, a young girl who has decided that her glasses are her favorite thing.

Now we'll take a trip all the way to the Americas where Seva is poised to end avoidable blindness in Guatemala. Let's hear the story of a young Guatemalan boy named Pablito.

Of course, Seva is also hard at work in the United States where we have been working with Native communities in Washington state to provide access to eye care to Native children who live in remote or marginalized communities.

Because Seva works with so many communities and so many great partners all around the globe, there is so much more that we would like to cover. But for today, this brief tour will have to do. Thanks to your support, in the past five years Seva has screened 1.5 million children; completed 32,000 pediatric sight-restoring surgeries and given eyeglasses to over 100,000 children.

Thank you for helping us give children all around the world a brighter future.