WHAT WE DO - Seva in Tibet

See a slide show of a Tibetan eye camp

Read about the blind sisters

Read Metok, Tashi and Norbu's story

Read Dekyi's story

Read more success stories from Tibet and learn how your gifts change lives!

Tibet has one of the highest rates of blindness in the world. Most of this blindness is due to cataract, a disease often associated with aging. Cataracts can be removed, and sight restored, with a relatively simple and highly cost-effective operation, yet most Tibetans blinded by cataracts never regain their sight because they cannot access the limited eye care services available. Cataract is also the leading cause of blindness among the working age group, those responsible for Tibet's economic growth.

The huge land area of Tibet, the dispersed nature of the population, the inaccessibility of much of the terrain, the lack of public transport, and the poverty of the majority of the population add to the challenge of delivering adequate eye care in the region.

Seva has been conducting blindness prevention projects in Tibet since 1995 and is the leading eye care provider in Tibet responsible for two-thirds of the cataract surgeries in both the Tibetan Autonomous Region and in Tibetan areas outside the TAR.

In addition, Seva-sponsored programs are taking a leading role in developing a blindness reduction strategy for Tibetan areas of other provinces in China (Szechuan and Qinghai) and is a model for eye care for the rest of China.

Since 1995, Seva has worked with local partners, starting with the Tibet Development Fund, and more recently with the Public Health Bureau to establish services at hospitals and to train doctors throughout the region. Through these partnerships, last year, 10,000 people received eye care. Seva has also trained local cataract surgical teams and supported 25 eye camps. Read more about eye camps here.

Seva's program addresses the needs for blindness prevention and sight restoration both in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and in surrounding Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan. The TAR alone has over 30,000 people who are cataract blind with an annual incidence of over 2,000.

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

The Kham Eye Centre

Seva is currently conducting a major campaign to raise funds for equipment and training for the Kham Eye Centre, a 50-bed eye hospital that is currently being built in Dhartsedo and will open in 2009. The Kham Eye Centre will be a non-profit eye care institution specializing in clinical services, research, teaching and prevention and treatment of eye diseases. The goal is to conduct a minimum of 14,000 sight-restoring cataract surgeries over the next 5 years and to establish 10 vision centres by 2010. For more information about the Kham Eye Centre and how you can support it, click here.

To learn about Seva's other major projects click here.