For 25 years, Seva Canada donors have helped build something lasting: a partnership that is changing how eye care reaches people across Africa and around the world.
This August, eye health leaders from across Africa and beyond filled the auditorium at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College (KCMC) in Moshi, Tanzania, for two days marking a milestone 25 years in the making: the anniversary of the founding of the Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology (KCCO). It’s a moment made possible by African eye health leaders, visionary founders Drs. Paul Courtright and Susan Lewallen, KCCO’s skilled, dedicated team, and supporters like you.
Over two days, leaders shared lessons and celebrated the impact of African-led eye care programs, learning across borders from Nigeria to Ethiopia and beyond. Discussions explored KCCO’s pioneering community ophthalmology model, community-based pediatric eye care from early detection through follow-up after cataract surgery, progress on gender equity, and efforts to eliminate trachoma in some of the hardest-to-reach communities. That last effort has become a blueprint for collaboration that other disease-elimination programs now look to.
But behind every program and every new approach is something much more important: people who can see, learn, work, care for their families and participate fully in their communities.
For Seva Canada, the forum was also a moment to reflect on what 25 years of partnership-and 25 years of your generosity-has accomplished. The partnership between Seva Canada and KCCO is more than a funding relationship. It has been about learning together, solving problems together, listening closely to local leaders and communities who understand what will work best in their own context-and together finding better ways to reach people who might otherwise be left behind.
“KCCO’s team shows up day after day with skill and heart. Always with the patients in mind first.”
Dr. Marty Spencer, Seva Canada
As KCCO looks ahead to its next chapter, one thing hasn’t changed: none of this happens without you. Thank you for being part of this journey and here’s to the next 25 years of sight and partnership.
