Seva Receives Prestigious Champalimaud Award
On September 7th, Seva Foundation, Seva Canada, and our longtime partner the Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology (KCCO), received the prestigious 2015 Antonio Champalimaud Vision Award.
The Champalimaud Award is considered the Nobel Prize of eye care, a celebration of our contribution to the worldwide effort to eliminate preventable and treatable blindness.
This award recognizes Seva and KCCO for our work in Africa, a continent with some of the least developed eye care services in the world. It honors the trust and vision of Seva donors, large and small, who have helped to create some of the world's most innovative eye care programs.
Seva's greatest strength is to recognize and nurture potential in individuals and organizations. In 2001, two Seva advisors provided that opportunity when they moved to Moshi, Tanzania with their young family to establish KCCO. Since then, KCCO has grown to a full-time staff of eight Tanzanian public health specialists. This was possible thanks to initial and ongoing support from Seva donors like you.
Working in developing countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the MIddle East, Seva helps communities build locally-run programs that serve everyone in the community with affordable services. In many countries, eye centers can become partially or fully financially self-sufficient over time. Rather than simply set up treatment centers, Seva's model provides a long-term vision care solution with tools for management, leadership development and continuous improvement that help the local community provide eye care for generations to come.
We are honored to receive the Champalimaud Award and thank our dedicated and committed donors for supporting our vision.
The Champalimaud Vision Award includes a cash prize of 1 million Euros which will be shared by the three organizations. Seva intends to use the funds to strengthen our investment in eye care development worldwide.
