Seva Canada

Eye care programs in developing countries need a high level of financial self-sustainability to maintain and grow their services as external funding is often inadequate and can be unreliable. In 2013, Seva Canada helped the Sava eye unit in Madagascar to develop and implement a cost-recovery program to better manage the cost of, and to improve revenue associated with, their three principle activities: consultation visits, cataract operations, and sale of glasses. The study illustrates how the Sava eye unit improved its cost-recovery over a 5 year period, from 68 to 102%, while maintaining their commitment to provide high-quality services and equitable care to their population.

The World Health Organization estimates that about one-half of the estimated 1.4 million cases of blindness in children below the age of 15 could be avoided. Finding and treating children early in life is a top priority for child eye health programs and most have developed strategies to identify and refer children in need of care. The Key Informant (KI) case finding method, which trains community members to screen children for eye problems and refer them to eye services, is a common strategy to identify and refer children with blindness and visual impairment. However, studies to date have not determined the benefit and cost of adding KIs to routine outreach activities. In summary, this study demonstrates that in addition to being an effective method for identifying blind children, the KI method can be successfully used as part of a community ophthalmology program to increase the uptake of screening services at a modest increase in costs.

Women bear an inequitable burden of blinding conditions compared to men primarily because they have more limited access to eye care services. This systematic review sought evidence regarding interventions to increase gender equity in eye care.

Seva Canada, 2018

Ophthalmic Epidemiology, 2017

Cogent Medicine, 2017