Thanks to your generous support, Seva Canada has expanded its work to South America for the first time through a new partnership with Clínica Oftalmologíca Divino Niño Jesús (DNJ) in Peru. DNJ is a non-profit eye care hospital system with two hospitals: one in Lima and the other in Iquitos. Their mission is to prevent blindness and restore sight in the most vulnerable and low-income populations by offering comprehensive eye care services with quality and professionalism. Sadly, DNJ’s services are needed now more than ever: the COVID-19 pandemic caused a severe recession in Peru, where nearly 30% of people now live in poverty.
Our partnership focuses on allowing DNJ to provide more services to patients who cannot afford to pay. In Lima, our support is focused on strengthening their subspecialty services to provide treatments and surgeries that preserve what sight patients have left after being diagnosed with degenerative eye diseases.
In Iquitos, we support outreach activities for patients living in extremely remote rural areas without regular access to eye care—some along the Amazon River, only accessible by boat. The first of these outreach activities was carried out in Tamshiyacu in April, where 121people were screened, and 24 were brought to Iquitos by boat for surgery. This was the first time people living in the area had access to any eye health services since 2018!
We are extremely proud and grateful to support DNJ in fulfilling their mission and providing high-quality eye care to the people of Peru.
