WHAT WE DO - Seva in India

Infinite Vison: The Story of Dr. "V" is a wonderful biography of the     founder of Aravind Eye Hospital and co-founder of Seva, Dr.     Venkataswamy, who is fondly remembered as Dr. V. (Note: the screen will appear black for the first 8 seconds because that is how the film starts.)

The Partnership of Aravind Eye Hospital and the Seva Foundation from Undertold Stories on Vimeo.

An estimated 21 million people in India have cataracts, and nine million are cataract blind. Although cataract is reversible, millions remain blind due to a lack of accessible eye care.

Seva works to restore sight in conjunction with the Aravind Eye Care System based in Madurai, Tamil Nadu which was started in 1976 by a founding Seva Foundation board member, Dr. G. Venkataswamy. (See the video right.) Aravind has won the 2008 Gates Award for Global Health which honours extraordinary efforts to improve health in developing countries. 

Seva has worked with Aravind Eye Hospital staff and several partners to expand from an 11-bed clinic in a rented house to a 3,950-bed network of eye hospitals. Aravind is now the most productive eye care organization in the world, serving over 2.4 million patients a year (two-thirds for free) and providing more than 280,000 eye surgeries annually. Thanks in part to Aravind's efforts, the estimated number of blind people in India fell from 8.9 million in 1990 to 6.7 million in 2002, a decline of 25%. Click here to read more about the Gates Award.

Aravind provides high quality, affordable, community-oriented eye care within a sustainable financial structure. Fees from the 1/3 of patients who can afford to pay subsidize services for the other 2/3 of patients who are served free of charge. Aravind’s creative "cross-funding" is revolutionary in this field. It has inspired other eye services, including the Lumbini Eye Care Program in Nepal.

Also in India, Seva coordinated the research and technology transfer that created Aravind’s Aurolab, a nonprofit business trust that is now a leading manufacturer of intraocular lenses, sutures and other vital supplies for eye care. Aurolab revolutionized eye care service delivery throughout the developing world by bringing the cost of intraocular lenses (IOLs) down from almost $300 each to under $10. Aurolab has now become the developing world’s leading supplier of IOLs.

Initially, Seva assisted Aravind in establishing essential finance, community outreach, and staffing structures. Now this dynamic partnership focuses on human resources development. The Lions Aravind Institute of Community Ophthalmology engages Seva volunteers as trainers for staff from Aravind and other eye care programs throughout Asia.

Seva and Aravind provide on-site training and consultation to eye hospitals that seek to provide high volume, sustainable services for their communities.

To learn more about specific Gifts of Sight for India, click here.