Seva Canada : Enter Seva Canada's video contest and raise awareness about blindness among girls and women

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SEVA CANADA ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF ITS
HER SIGHT IS WORTH IT VIDEO CONTEST

Seva Canada is pleased to announce the winners of its national online video contest, Her Sight Is Worth It.

Scroll down to view the winning videos.

The challenge was to create a short video of up to three minutes long to raise awareness of blindness among women and girls. Globally there are 45 million blind people and two-thirds of them are women and girls, yet they receive care less that half as often as men and boys.

The winners are:
1st PLACE:     Derick Groves of Victoria, BC
2nd PLACE:    Karin DuBois of Burnaby, BC
3rd PLACE:     Rhonda Kara Hanah of Thunder Bay, ON
Scroll down to see the three winning films!

The prizes are:
1st PRIZE:     MacBook laptop & Seva gift package
2ND PRIZE:    Flip video camera & Seva gift package
3RD PRIZE:    Seva gift package including t-shirt, ball cap, greeting cards, 2 Paperblank journals and Seva 2010 wall calendar.

In addition, all three winners will also be honoured by having the sight restored to one girl and one woman in their name. The three winning videos will be screened at the World Community Film Festival in 12 cities and towns across Canada, starting with the CoDev Film Festival in Vancouver on January 31 and then moving to Courtenay on February 6th. The winning videos will be screened together with the award-winning film, Infinite Vision, the inspiring story of Dr. Venkataswamy who, despite crippling arthritis, restored the sight of over 100,000 people with his own hands and who founded Aravind Eye Care System, now the largest and most productive eye care facility in the world.

Seva Canada would like to thank everyone who supported and participated in the Her Sight Is Worth It contest. Our special thanks to Planeterra Foundation for providing the first prize and to the members of the jury:
•    William Jans, photographer/adventurer who hosts live shows about his absurd travels overseas
•    Maggie Leithead, President and Chief Operating Officer of CharityVillage Ltd.
•    Mickey Lemle, documentary film-maker based in New York City
•    Leonard Schein, President of Festival Cinemas & founder of the Vancouver International Film Festival
•    David Usher, musician and winner of 5 Junos

To view all the videos, visit Seva's YouTube Contest Channel

FIRST PLACE WINNER: DERICK GROVES

SECOND PLACE WINNER: KARIN DuBOIS

THIRD PLACE WINNER: RHONDA KARA HANAH

BACKGROUND TO SEVA'S CONTEST

Seva Canada is calling on Canadians age 13 and up to help restore sight and prevent blindness in girls and women - by creating short videos about vision and gender.Seva (pronounced say-va) has been working for over 27 years to restore sight and prevent blindness in the developing world.

Globally someone goes blind every 5 seconds and a child goes blind every minute. Approximately 314 million people worldwide live with serious vision impairment and 45 million people are blind. Two out of three blind people are women or girls, yet they receive care less that half as often as men and boys.

It doesn't have to be this way. At Seva Canada, we believe her sight is worth it. Seva is a global leader on the issue of gender equity and blindness. We need your help to raise awareness of this important global health issue to ensure that women and girls get access to the care they need.

Restoring someone's sight, often through a 15-minute cataract surgery costing just $50, transforms not only that person's life, but the lives of her family and caregivers.

Read stories of girls and women who experienced blindness and had their sight restored.

90 per cent of the world's blind live in the developing world. The good news is that restoring someone's sight is one of the most cost-effective methods of reducing poverty, according to the World Health Organization.

Learn about blindness causes and available treatments.

Join us and create a video on the theme, Her Sight Is Worth It, and help Seva Canada restore sight of girls and women in developing countries.

CONTEST DETAILS & RULES

You are invited to create a compelling video on the topic of Gender and Blindness. The top three winning short films will be used to inspire and educate the world about the importance of sight and raise awareness of the 30 million blind women and girls.

Basic rules are:

Videos cannot be longer than 3 minutes.
You must be 13 or older to enter.
Contest is open to Canadian citizens or permanent residents.
Deadline for submissions is 12:00 pm PST, December 15th, 2009. All videos submitted after this time will be disqualified.
All videos must contain the Seva logo either at the beginning, end or both.
Three winners will be determined through a combination of audience choice (45%) and our celebrity jury (55%).

For more information see our contest rules and regulations.

PRIZES

1ST:     MacBook laptop. $1500 value AND Seva package $120 value.
2ND:     Flip video camera $200 value AND Seva gift package $120 value.
3RD:     Seva gift package including t-shirt, ball cap, greeting cards, 2 Paperblank
journals and a Seva 2010 wall calendar, valued at $120.

ALL 3 WINNERS: The three winning videos will be screened at the World Community Film Festival in 11 cities and towns across Canada. The the top three winners will also be honoured by having sight restored to one girl and one woman in their name.

HOW TO ENTER

To enter the contest:

Fiirst upload your video to Seva's YouTube Contest Channel.
Then send us a high-resolution DVD copy (suitable for viewing on the big screen) of your entry in an NTSC format, containing an MP4, .avi, H264, Quicktime, or mpeg2 file, *Autoplay Required. Indicate your name, address, phone number and email, and forward by snail mail to:

Seva Canada Society
Attn: Her Sight Is Worth It
Suite 100, 2000 West 12th Avenue
Vancouver, BC V6J 2G2

NOTE: Contestants must upload their entry to our YouTube contest page AND mail in their entry in format noted above. Otherwise, the entry will be disqualified.

CONTEST JURY

The contest will be judged by YouTube audiences and our select jury members including:

David Usher, musician and winner of 5 Junos
Leonard Schein, President of Festival Cinemas & founder of the Vancouver International Film Festival
Mickey Lemle, documentary film-maker
Maggie Leithead, President and Chief Operating Officer of CharityVillage Ltd.
William Jans, photographer/adventurer who hosts live shows about his absurd travels overseas

RESOURCES FOR FILM-MAKERS

To help you in the creation of your video, Seva Canada is supplying a set of images, music and our logo that you can download. Provided are some images that have been kindly donated by Seva supporters.

To download a hi-resolution copy of an image, click the thumbnail below. We ask that you respect the photographers' work and use the images only for the purpose of the video. More resources to follow.

Download Seva Canada Logo (black on white) here.

Download Seva Canada Logo (white on black) here.

TEACHERS' GUIDE

Creating a video is an educational opportunity, as well as a chance for students to:

Learn more about social justice, health and gender equity, and issues of poverty in developing countries, directly integrating these with school curriculum;Earn community service hours;
Learn new video-making skills and use their creativity for a great cause;
Gain national recognition of their work, and the work of their school;
Make a difference: One woman and one girl will have their sight restored in name of the contest winner;
Win great prizes: a MacBook Pro computer, a Flip video camera and more.

Download our TEACHERS' GUIDE WITH LESSON PLANS.

MEDIA KIT

Download our PRESS RELEASE.

Download our PRESS KIT.

GIVE US A HAND

- Help us promote the contest: ad a banner or a poster to your blog or website.

Download banner here.
Download small poster here.
Download large poster (17" x 14") here.

- Attend upcoming Seva's Eye Opener Benefit event.

SPONSORSHIP

Seva is extremely grateful to our contest sponsor, Planeterra Foundation, for their support.