2022 Annual General Meeting - Let's Celebrate 40 Years of Awesome!

In this, our 40th anniversary year, we want to celebrate all that we have achieved with you - our donors, advocates and volunteers, our program partners and international staff!

In 40 years of giving and supporting, you have transformed the lives of people in need through the power of sight! Over 5 million people have received sight-restoring surgery and can now see the faces of their loved ones, are independent, can succeed in school, earn an income and support their family and community. Millions more people have accessed essential eye care services including glasses and medicine.

Join us in celebrating all these accomplishments alongside 3 members of our most longstanding eye care programs - Parami Dhakhwa from Seva Nepal, Sanil Joseph from Lions Aravind Institute of Community Ophthalmology (LAICO) and Paul Courtright from the Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology (KCCO).

PLEASE RSVP:

In-person RSVP:https://bit.ly/inpersonAGM **NEW ROOM** at VanDusen Botanical Garden - "Floral Hall"

Free parking is available. Please see map below for parking and location of Floral Hall

Zoom RSVP: https://bit.ly/ZoomSevaAGM

Joining by Zoom:

LINK: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84778069858?pwd =S2kxU0VXMWhHMDU1ZHp0SUtKTWpkUT09

PLEASE NOTE:
Voting: Everyone is welcome to attend the AGM, however, to be considered a member of Seva Canada Society and eligible to vote at our AGM, a person must have donated a minimum of $20 between November 6, 2021 and November 14, 2022. Any member may be nominated to the Board of Directors by submitting a letter signed by a nominator and a seconder, both of whom must be members in good standing of Seva Canada Society. Letters can be sent to the Seva Canada office to the attention of the Chair of the Governance and Nominating Committee.

COVID: Your safety is very important to us. Currently, VanDusen does not require its guests to wear a mask or to be vaccinated. We will continue to monitor the situation and as we get closer to the date we will update you with any changes to the regulations.

Parami Dhakhwa, Seva Nepal Program Manager

Parami has been with Seva Nepal for 19 years and currently holds the role of Program Manager. Parami has implemented numerous eye care programs throughout Nepal. She liaises with local partners including eye hospitals, District Eye Care Centers, Community Eye Centres, as well as the Seva Canada and Seva Foundation offices. She also coordinates training programs at Seva's partner hospitals and is responsible for the administration of Seva Nepal's finances and grant management.

Always open to learning and expanding her knowledge, Parami has recently added research to her portfolio. She is currently working on 2 studies with the Reiyukai Eiko Masunaga Eye Hospital in Banepa, just outside of Kathmandu. She is investigating how to increase the number of referrals from the general hospital of retinal patients to the Eye Hospital and how to increase the number of surgical eye patients coming back for follow-up visits.

In her spare time, Parami enjoys spending time with her husband and young daughter.
Sanil Joseph, Senior Faculty LAICO
Sanil Joseph is a Senior Faculty & Hospital Management Consultant at the Lions Aravind Institute of Community Ophthalmology (LAICO), Aravind Eye Care System in India. He has been with Aravind since March 2005. His major responsibilities include anchoring health services/ epidemiological research initiatives, consultancy for capacity building of eye care institutions in India and other low-income countries, designing and conducting management training programs for eye care personnel. Sanil has been involved in around 45 consultancy projects, half of which are with institutions in low-income countries other than India. He has travelled to 17 countries on over 30 mentoring or training assignments. Training programs organised by his team have been attended by participants from over 40 countries.

Sanil holds an MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, University of London (2013) and a Masters in Hospital Administration
(MHA) from Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India
(2001). He is currently working on his PhD at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He is the recipient of the prestigious International Masters Fellowship from The Wellcome Trust UK (2012-15). In 2012 he was recognised with the Outstanding Young Professional award by the Junior Chamber International - India.

Sanil is also a talented singer! Listen to some of his music:
- Enga Madura, meaning 'our Madurai' is a peppy song about the city where Aravind is located: https://bit.ly/OurMadurai
- Oru Thuli Velicham, meaning, 'A Drop of Light,' is a tribute to Dr. V - the founder of Aravind Eye Care System, made as a tribute on his birth centenary: https://bit.ly/DrVSong
Paul Courtright, Co-Founder Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology

Paul Courtright is the co-founder of the Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology (KCCO), a professor at the University of Cape Town and a Seva Canada Board Member. Paul and his wife, Dr. Susan Lewallen, established the KCCO in Moshi, Tanzania in 2001 and lived there until 2012, spending the next 4 years in Cape Town, South Africa.

Paul started work in the eye care field in 1979 as a Peace Corps volunteer working with leprosy patients in South Korea. After completing his Masters (1984) and Doctorate (1988) he worked in Egypt and Ethiopia (1 year each), Malawi (4 years), Tanzania (11 years) and South Africa (4 years).

He and Susan moved to San Diego, into a life of semiretirement in 2016. Currently a consultant, Paul is the Trachoma Technical Lead for Sightsavers' trachoma elimination programs in 22 countries in Africa. He has published 282 scientific articles and book chapters.

Paul has been working with Seva Canada since the mid-1990s. He is an avid fan of Seva Canada for many reasons, including the professional way in which Seva Canada approaches its engagement, the willingness to respond to needs identified in the field, and the courage to invest in new ideas, new areas, and new people.

Paul is also the author of Witnessing Gwangju, a memoir of the May 18, 1980 uprising in South Korea that led to the democratization movement in that country.
AGM Location

Please refer to the map to locate the free parking and location of the Floral Hall. To enlarge this map, click on the image below under "Event Photos."