Larry Louie
Fine Art Photography
GLOBAL BLINDNESS
Seva Canada is an international non-governmental organization whose mission is the elimination of preventable and treatable blindness around the world.
As an optometrist and documentary photographer, I am very much aware and concerned about the problem of blindness in the world. Over the next decade, the need for effective global blindness prevention and treatment programs will become increasing urgent as the number of people in need is rapidly outstripping the eye care services available to them. It is estimated that the number of blind people in the world will increase from 45 million today to 75 million by 2020. Even more disturbing is the fact that two out of three blind people in the world are women and young girls, with most of them living in areas of developing countries where they have limited access to sight restoring services.
In Oct. 2008, I had the opportunity to work with SEVA Canada in documenting one of their eye care projects in Africa. Seva Canada is a non profit organization which provides funding and expertise to partners in developing countries to create sustainable, economically viable, locally managed eye care programs that will continue to serve local populations long after Seva’s involvement is complete.
At the Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology (KCCO) in Tanzania, Seva Canada has partnered with a program founded by Dr. Paul Courtright and Dr. Susan Lewallen in 2001 - Helping Africa Help Themselves. Not only does KCCO provide outreach eye care programs to rural area, it has become a major teaching and research hospital and resource center for sub-Saharan Africa. Their program on gender equity is unparalleled in the region.
This part of my website is a compilation of images of the programs that SEVA Canada supports around the world in the pursuit of fulfilling the goals of Vision 2020, the global initiative for the elimination of avoidable blindness, and the battle for gender equality in eye care.
LLouie
Copyright 2010 © Larry Louie