WHAT WE DO - Seva in Nepal

See a video of a Nepali eye camp!

Read about a young blind mother

Read Kali Kami's story

"Seva has worked to make Nepal fully sustainable in eye care. I cannot imagine the present sight restoration program in Nepal without Seva." — Dr. S.P. Dhital, Founding Director, Lumbini Eye Hospital in Nepal

Seva Canada has worked in Nepal for over 27 years. Seva has helped create one of the most comprehensive eye care programs in the world, through partnerships with the Government of Nepal, the World Health Organization and a dozen international organizations.

Although Nepal remains one of the world’s least developed countries, in the context of the Seva-sponsored eye care program, it has become the training centre for, and model of, eye care program development in the region.

Nepal’s eye centres now provide more than 100,000 surgeries and more than 850,000 outpatient services annually.

Seva continues to work primarily through support of the Nepal Eye Health Education Unit, which provides training programs for primary health care workers, pharmaceutical retailers, female community health care volunteers, and traditional healers throughout Nepal.

In recent years, Seva has supported training for rural eye centre staff as well as workshops with traditional healers focusing on recognition of eye problems, home remedies, and referral to eye centers.

Our goal is to enhance coordination of scarce resources at the national level to reach the growing numbers of people in need.

In addition to the national program, Seva has established and supported an eye hospital in the populous Lumbini Zone of Nepal.

Seva sponsored the costs of all eye services, staff development and facility construction of the Lumbini Eye Institute in Nepal from 1985 to 1993. This is much more than a hospital: it includes a large base hospital, six rural clinics, over 50 screening camps and 6 surgical camps each year. In the past year, 137,682 school children have been screened for eye problems.

Seva and Lumbini staff developed a system of affordable patient fees to cover the costs of running the hospital and its rural services. Since 1985, this program has become one of the most successful models of high-volume quality eye care, providing over 25,000 cataract surgeries and serving over 200,000 patients a year.

This model, based on Aravind Eye Care System’s fee structure, has enabled Lumbini to become the first rural eye hospital in a developing country to become financially self-sufficient from affordable patient fees. This breakthrough has inspired many other programs to develop a similar model.

Moreover, Lumbini Eye Institute has become a training centre for Seva program expansion into Tibetan regions of China. Despite political borders and governance problems in both Nepal and China, the trans-Himalayan connection has proven mutually beneficial to program development.

Learn about specific Gifts of Sight for Nepal.

Read more sight restoration stories from Nepal.

Urgent Need: Primary Eye Care Centres in Western Nepal

Tens of thousands of Nepalis have no access even to the most basic eye care. Seva is trying to change that.

We are seeking funding and equipment to establish 11 Primary Eye Care Centres in the hill districts of Nepal. The centres are essential for early detection and prevention of blindness.

About 90% of eye problems can be dealt with at a Primary Eye Care Centre and the cost of setting them up is relatively small. Each year a portion of the costs, such as salaries and rent, will be covered through affordable patient fees and the sale of low-cost glasses, making the centres more sustainable. To learn more about the Primary Eye Care Centre campaign and how you can help, click here.