Seva at work in Malawi

Read about Seva's major project in Malawi

Malawi is one of the poorest countries of the world and has a population of approximately 13 million people.

Congenital and developmental cataract is the leading cause of blindness in children in Malawi.

Every year approximately 120-180 children are born with congenital cataract or they get developmental cataract. Moreover, there is a backlog of approximately 600 children with congenital cataract.

In 2008, the first year that paediatric ophthalmology services were available at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, a total of only 81 Malawian children received surgery.Clearly, there is a significant unmet need. Without urgent help, these children will face a lifetime of blindness and all the suffering which that entails.

Over the next three years, the goal of Seva Canada is to assist Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre to provide high-quality comprehensive eye care services for the children in Malawi.

Specific objectives include:

• Increase by 50% the referrals of children to the tertiary hospital who are blind or severely visually impaired.
• Increase by 50% the number of surgeries for congenital and developmental cataracts each year for the next three years.
• Ensure that 100% of children who need post-operative refraction receive spectacles.
• Ensure that over 80% of children receive an IOL (intraocular lens).
• Ensure that all potential partners (service groups, non-eye care NGOs, eye care groups, and government) are educated regarding the importance of early detection and early referral of children with severe vision loss.
• Ensure 100% follow up of children enrolled in the management system.
• Ensure that 100% of children are encouraged to be placed in an appropriate educational environment.
• Ensure 100% two-year post-treatment follow up of all children identified.

In order to accomplish these eight objectives, the following activities will be undertaken:

• Complete planning sessions and training.
• Establish strategies to find children in need of surgery.
• Support the expenses related to surgery, transportation and counseling.
• Obtain paediatric intraocular lenses (approx. $90-120 each).
• Support the expenses related to spectacles and low vision services.

The cost of this project over three years is $150,000 CDN

Presently we have following commitments:
Lions Club Africa                        $50,000
Somerset Foundation                 $30,000

Two of Seva Canada's board members, Nancy Mortifee and Matt Buie, have personal undertaken to raise funds for this urgent project. To visit their Personal Giving Page click here.

To read the full project proposal click here.

Providing children's glasses & low-vision devices

It is essential that post-operative spectacles be provided for over 90% of children receiving surgery for congenital or developmental cataract. Spectacles need to be made individually; “ready-made” spectacles are not appropriate. As children’s faces are smaller than adult faces, using adult frames is inappropriate: the papillary distance cannot be matched with outsized frames and nose pieces are often too large to sit on a child’s nose. Paediatric frames are generally more expensive than adult frames and virtually impossible to source in Africa. Finally, the program needs to provide frames that children want to wear. 

In 2008 in Blantyre, none of the 81 children who had surgery received post-operative spectacles because of the lack of frames.To avoid this problem in the future, frames will be provided by KCCO through donations from Seva Canada. These frames will be taken from stocks maintained at KCCO. The lenses will be obtained locally and the fitting can be done at the existing optical workshop in Blantyre. The team in Blantyre will also explore how they can order the lenses directly from China or India to get the best possible price. We anticipate distributing about 120 pairs of glasses in the first year and 150 in the second year. This means that we will need a minimum number of 200 frames at the start of the project period.

Seva Canada is extremely grateful to OGI Canada Inc. and Perfect Optical (Canada) Ltd. for their generous donations of children's eyeglass frames for this project.