Formation | 1978 |
---|---|
Type | INGO |
Purpose | Prevention of blindness. |
Headquarters | 1786 Fifth Street |
Location |
|
Region served | Worldwide |
Executive Director | Kate Moynihan [1] |
Website | www |
Seva Foundation is an international non-profit health organization based in Berkeley, California, known for preventing and treating blindness and other visual impairments. It was co-founded in 1978 by Dr. Larry Brilliant, Ram Dass, Wavy Gravy, Nicole Grasset and Govindappa Venkataswamy. Steve Jobs served as an early adviser and major contributor.
Seva works with local communities in more than 20 countries around the world to develop locally-run, culturally appropriate, self-sustaining programs to increase access to eye care. Seva works with local eye health hospitals and clinics in central Asia, southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The foundation also works with Native communities in North America through its American Indian Sight Initiative.
Seva Foundation, based in Berkeley, California, was founded in 1978 by public health expert Larry Brilliant, [2] [3] spiritual leader Ram Dass [4] and humanitarian activist Wavy Gravy. Other co-founders include Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy, founder of the Aravind Eye Foundation, and Nicole Grasset, the senior adviser for the World Health Organization smallpox eradication campaign. [5] [6] Steve Jobs also participated as an adviser at early Seva meetings and provided the first significant cash donation along with an Apple II to enter and analyze eye care survey results in the original Nepal program. [7]
According to the Seva Foundation's website, "Seva (pronounced Say-Va) is a Sanskrit word meaning 'selfless service to others' and came to represent for us the dream of relieving suffering and reducing poverty in the most effective ways possible." [8]
Lions Clubs International, is an international service organization established in 1917 in Chicago, Illinois, by Melvin Jones. The organization is currently headquartered in Oak Brook, IL. As of January 2020, it had over 46,000 local clubs and more than 1.4 million members in more than 200 countries and geographic areas around the world.
Christopher Mark Robinson is an American musician. He founded the rock band The Black Crowes, then known as Mr. Crowe's Garden, with his brother Rich Robinson in 1984. Chris is the lead singer of The Black Crowes, and he and his brother are the only continuous members of the Crowes. He is the vocalist and rhythm guitarist for the Chris Robinson Brotherhood, which was formed in 2011 while the Black Crowes were on hiatus. Robinson is noted for his high tenor vocal range and bluesy vocal runs.
Ram Dass, also known as Baba Ram Dass, was an American spiritual teacher, guru of modern yoga, psychologist, and writer. His best-selling 1971 book Be Here Now, which has been described by multiple reviewers as "seminal", helped popularize Eastern spirituality and yoga in the West. He authored or co-authored twelve more books on spirituality over the next four decades, including Grist for the Mill (1977), How Can I Help? (1985), and Polishing the Mirror (2013).
Neem Karoli Baba or Neeb Karori Baba, also known to his followers as 'Maharaj-ji', was a Hindu guru and a devotee of the Hindu deity Hanuman. He is known outside India for being the spiritual master of a number of Americans who travelled to India in the 1960s and 70s, the most well-known being the spiritual teachers Ram Dass and Bhagavan Das, and the musicians Krishna Das and Jai Uttal.
Hugh Nanton Romney Jr., known as Wavy Gravy, is an American entertainer and peace activist best known for his role at Woodstock, as well as for his hippie persona and countercultural beliefs.
Be Here Now, or Remember, Be Here Now, is a 1971 book on spirituality, yoga, and meditation by the American yogi and spiritual teacher Ram Dass. The core book was first printed in 1970 as From Bindu to Ojas and its current title comes from a statement his guide, Bhagavan Das, made during Ram Dass's journeys in India. The cover features a mandala incorporating the title, a chair, radial lines, and the word "Remember" repeated four times.
Lawrence Brilliant is an American epidemiologist, technologist, philanthropist, and author, who worked with the World Health Organization from 1973–1976 helping to successfully eradicate smallpox.
Lama Foundation is a spiritual community founded in 1967, located in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico, seventeen miles north of Taos. The original commune was co-founded by Barbara Durkee, Stephen Durkee, and Jonathan Altman.
Dick's Picks Volume 5 is the fifth live album in the Dick's Picks series of releases by the Grateful Dead. It was recorded on December 26, 1979, at the Oakland Auditorium Arena in Oakland, California. It was released in May 1996.
Aravind Eye Hospitals is a hospital chain in India. It was founded by Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy at Madurai, Tamil Nadu in 1976. It has grown into a network of eye hospitals and has had a major impact in eradicating cataract related blindness in India. As of 2012, Aravind has treated nearly 32 million patients and performed 4 million surgeries. The model of Aravind Eye Care hospitals has been applauded and has become a subject for numerous case studies across the world.
Govindappa Venkataswamy, popularly known as Dr V., was an Indian ophthalmologist who dedicated his life to eliminate needless blindness. He was the founder and former chairman of Aravind Eye Hospitals. He is best known for developing a high quality, high volume, low-cost service delivery model that has restored sight to millions of people. Since inception, Aravind Eye Care System has seen over 55 million patients, and performed over 6.8 million surgeries. Over 50% of the organisation's patients pay either nothing or highly subsidised rates. Its scale and self-sustainability prompted a 1993 Harvard Business Case Study on the Aravind model.
Lifeline Express is a charitable organization that attempts to reduce blindness in China. Since 1997, the organization has operated rainbow-coloured hospital "Eye-Trains," which provide free cataract surgery to patients in rural parts of China. In addition, Lifeline Express promotes ophthalmological training for Chinese doctors, through constructing training centers and inviting foreign doctors to China as consultants, and builds solar hot water systems in remote parts of China.
Nicole Grasset was a Swiss-French medical virologist and microbiologist-epidemiologist. Grasset was the senior smallpox advisor for the South-East Asia Regional Office (SEARO) of the World Health Organization (WHO) from 1971 through the end of the WHO smallpox eradication campaign.
Mildred Mosler Weisenfeld is the Brooklyn-born founder of national not-for-profit foundation the National Council to Combat Blindness in 1946, now known as Fight for Sight, an organization based in New York City that provides initial funds to promising scientists early in their careers. For 50 years, Weisenfeld was a one-woman campaign to increase funding for eye research, despite losing her own vision and having no scientific training.
Fight for Sight is a nonprofit organization in the United States which funds medical research in vision and ophthalmology. It was formed in 1946 as the National Council to Combat Blindness (NCCB), the first non-profit organization in the United States to fund vision research; 2011 marked its 65th anniversary.
David Green is an American social entrepreneur. His work has focused on making technology and health care services more accessible and sustainable.
The London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases was a collaborative disease eradication programme launched on 30 January 2012 in London. It was inspired by the World Health Organization roadmap to eradicate or prevent transmission for neglected tropical diseases by the year 2020. Officials from WHO, the World Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's 13 leading pharmaceutical companies, and government representatives from US, UK, United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, Brazil, Mozambique and Tanzania participated in a joint meeting at the Royal College of Physicians to launch this project. The meeting was spearheaded by Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO, and Bill Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Himalayan Cataract Project (HCP) was created in 1994 by Dr. Geoffrey Tabin and Dr. Sanduk Ruit with a goal of establishing a sustainable eye care infrastructure in the Himalaya. HCP empowers local doctors to provide ophthalmic care through skills-transfer and education. From its beginning, HCP responds to a pressing need for eye care in the Himalayan region. With programs in Nepal, Ethiopia, Ghana, Bhutan and India they have been able to restore sight to over one million people since year since 1994.
Seva Canada Society is a registered Canadian charitable organization whose mission is to restore sight and prevent blindness in the developing world. It was established in 1982 with help from Canadian International Development Agency. It is located in Vancouver, British Columbia. Seva Canada currently works in twelve countries around the world.
The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) is a global alliance of eye health organisations working for the prevention of blindness and vision impairment. IAPB was established in 1975 to work as an umbrella body for global blindness prevention activities. In 1999, IAPB and the World Health Organization launched Vision 2020: The Right to Sight, a global initiative to eliminate avoidable blindness, which has achieved some success, though it did not meet all its goals.