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Joan Baez
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The Grateful Dead
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Bruce Hornsby
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Odetta
Legendary Folk Singer
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David Crosby
Singer / Songwriter
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Graham Nash
Singer / Songwriter
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American Indian Sight Initiative
Training the Next Generation of American Indian Eye
Health Professionals
For over 30 years, Seva and our donors have been committed to improving the health and wellbeing of American Indian communities throughout the United States.
This past year, Seva launched the
American Indian Sight Initiative, which
works to improve eye health through
locally-based partnerships.
American Indians suffer disproportionately
higher rates of preventable and treatable
eye conditions that negatively impact
their lives. This is primarily due to a lack
of access to affordable, quality eye care.
Barriers to care among American Indians
include: poverty, geographic isolation,
and the lack of linguistically and culturally
appropriate eye care providers.
Compounding the socioeconomic factors,
American Indians are more likely to have
poor eyesight from biological factors,
such as a higher rate of refractive error
and astigmatism, both easily corrected
with eyeglasses.
American Indians also have high rates of
diabetic retinopathy, an eye disease that
leads to blindness if left untreated.
The lack of resources, few trained eye
care professionals, and language barriers
are all factors in why only a minority of
tribal health programs have an eye care
provider onsite.
Seva works to solve this problem by
investing in training the next generation
of American Indian eye care professionals.
One of these success stories is a young
woman named Dellyn Chinana who
interns at the Santo Domingo Pueblo
Health Clinic. Dellyn's goal is to be
the first in her community who is able
to provide eye care services in her
native language.
Dellyn's Vision Technology Instructor,
Sheri Red Shirt, explains, "Dellyn is very
much into community outreach. Being
able to speak her language and share
about eye health within her community
is going to be a great addition to the
Jemez Pueblo people."
Meet Dellyn Chinana:
