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Tell HN: Did you know that you can help restore a person’s eyesight for $50?

135 点作者 munchhausen超过 2 年前
Dear HN,<p>Is there a better way to start a year than with acts of generosity?<p>Recently, I learned about the Seva Foundation, which counts Larry Brilliant, Ram Dass and Steve Jobs among its founders. The foundation&#x27;s mission is to <i>&quot;build sustainable eye care systems worldwide by creating equitable access to eye care, building capacity of new and existing eye hospitals and systems, and collecting and learning from evidence.&quot;</i><p>I perused their website, and was taken aback by how common it is in many parts of the world for scores of people to suffer from vision impairment due to cataracts - a condition that can be easily cured with a simple surgery that costs 50$ to carry out.<p>It is a powerful reminder of the stark inequalities that exist in the world. I feel grateful that there are people like the Seva Foundation, who are doing something about it.<p>You can learn more about the foundation and donate to the cause at:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.seva.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.seva.org&#x2F;</a><p>P.S. I am not affiliated with the Seva Foundation, I just found them to be a genuinely great organization and wanted to spread the word.

15 条评论

Recursing超过 2 年前
I&#x27;m pretty skeptical of the $50 number. GiveWell thinks it&#x27;s closer to $1000 (still insanely cheap, but there might be even better opportunities!)<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.givewell.org&#x2F;international&#x2F;technical&#x2F;programs&#x2F;cataract-surgery" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.givewell.org&#x2F;international&#x2F;technical&#x2F;programs&#x2F;ca...</a>
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zmmmmm超过 2 年前
I&#x27;m curious why such a seemingly high value opportunity hasn&#x27;t attracted massive funding from philanthropy - at that cost a single billionare feeling generous could theoretically eradicate this form of blindness. But more realistically, foundations like Gates or Zuckerberg&#x2F;Chan with excellent oversight and due diligence could surely jump on something like this and make a huge dent.<p>Is there something I (we) are missing here?
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y-c-o-m-b超过 2 年前
This is my favorite charity. I&#x27;ve been donating to them for at least 5 years now and I even ask extended family to donate to them for Christmas instead of buying me gifts that I don&#x27;t want&#x2F;need. They send a lot of annoying snail-mail though, I should call and see if I can at least opt-out of that.
drittich超过 2 年前
I&#x27;ve long been surprised at how pervasive bad eyesight is, and often at a very young age. It seems like an adaptive trait. Why is it so common to have poor eyesight? What other aspects of human development suffer so much that seem so important for survival?
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jdswain超过 2 年前
In Australia&#x2F;New Zealand we have a similar charity started by an Ophthalmologist that began by performing the surgeries himself:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hollows.org&#x2F;au&#x2F;about-fred" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hollows.org&#x2F;au&#x2F;about-fred</a>
kirse超过 2 年前
I have always been a fan of Watsi (a YC&#x27;13 alum) for this as well. Radically transparent and 100% of your donation goes to stated healthcare needs.<p>Early on they started with a simple GoFundMe-like approach and have since shifted focus to the monthly model that gives them more leeway to prioritize healthcare needs, but overall exceptionally well run:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;watsi.org&#x2F;fund-treatments" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;watsi.org&#x2F;fund-treatments</a>
Nursie超过 2 年前
There are other great charities in this sector -<p>UK based Sight Savers * -<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sightsavers.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sightsavers.org&#x2F;</a><p>And in Australia the Fred Hollows Foundation -<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hollows.org&#x2F;au&#x2F;home" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hollows.org&#x2F;au&#x2F;home</a><p>(I am not affiliated to sight savers but am vaguely related to the founders)
Torma超过 2 年前
As someone relying on glasses my whole life I can relate to charities like this.<p>There is another interesting one <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.onedollarglasses.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.onedollarglasses.org&#x2F;</a> I like their approach of teaching people how to measure eye sights and build glasses. So it becomes a local self sustainable business.
ryzvonusef超过 2 年前
In Pakistan we have LRBT, if you are looking for an eyecare NGO to support.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Layton_Rahmatullah_Benevolent_Trust" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Layton_Rahmatullah_Benevolent_...</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lrbt.org.pk&#x2F;how-you-can-help&#x2F;sponsor-a-surgery&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lrbt.org.pk&#x2F;how-you-can-help&#x2F;sponsor-a-surgery&#x2F;</a>
pictureofabear超过 2 年前
It&#x27;s crazy how bad eye care can be in lesser-developed nations. My wife was born in one of those countries and had been told her entire life that nothing could be done about her eyesight. I took her to an optometrist, and they fixed her up in less than an hour, for $150. My wife still has the receipt. It helps me get out of trouble sometimes.
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KRAKRISMOTT超过 2 年前
There need to be more startups tackling hard medical technology. Most of the high end eye equipment like <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Optical_coherence_tomography" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Optical_coherence_tomography</a> are only supplied by German companies at prices beyond what your typical third world healthcare institution can afford to buy at scale.
pravenj超过 2 年前
If you checked out all others maybe you want to check this one too. Its in Nepal and pioneers of various tech in cataract surgery -- <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;tilganga.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;tilganga.org&#x2F;</a> Their number of treatment is pretty impressive (73,49,257 is their current count of people treated.)
frumenty超过 2 年前
Givewell has an excellent cost benefit analysis of this and similar cataract programs.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.givewell.org&#x2F;international&#x2F;technical&#x2F;programs&#x2F;cataract-surgery" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.givewell.org&#x2F;international&#x2F;technical&#x2F;programs&#x2F;ca...</a>
alexklarjr超过 2 年前
Ukraine should have dated but effective soviet&#x2F;russian equipment and plenty of doctors at free healthcare tier. This kind of operations are done more than 30 years. My grandmother had it in rural city. What exactly this charity do? Hook doctors to use US equipment to sell it to government later?
webmobdev超过 2 年前
Part of these funds go to <i>Aravind Eye Hospital</i> in India:<p>&gt; I pay $1 to have an eye test. I can come two more times in the next three months and I will not be charged. I first do a glaucoma test, and then I am tested for vision, and then examined for a detailed uveitis test an eye disease which I suffered in my youth ... The hospital is spanking clean. Everyday it sees 1200 patients and the doctors perform over 200 operations. But then this is only the beginning of an amazing story. It is part of a network of eye hospitals that has seen 32 million patients in 36 years, and performed more than 4 million eye surgeries most of them ultra-subsidized or free.<p>&gt; Here, the patient has the choice to decide whether to pay or not. In a country where a huge majority of people live on less than $2 a day he ripped of the price tag for access to world class quality eye care ... Today the Aravind Eye Care System is the largest provider of eye surgeries in the world. They see more than three million patients and perform over 300,000 surgeries a year. That is almost 7 percent of the global total. And their record of proficiency is better than that of the UK health care system.<p>Source: <i>An Infinite Vision: The Story of Aravind Eye Hospital</i> - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.huffpost.com&#x2F;entry&#x2F;an-infinite-vision-the-st_b_1511540" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.huffpost.com&#x2F;entry&#x2F;an-infinite-vision-the-st_b_1...</a><p>&gt; <i>Using a highly efficient surgical model and variable pricing, this hospital chain has reduced cataract blindness in Tamil Nadu, India, by more than 50 percent and serves all patients regardless of ability to pay.</i><p>&gt; Forty years ago, blindness caused primarily by cataracts was widespread in India, rendering almost 13 million people unable to see, even though the condition was relatively easy to correct surgically ... From its modest start with 11 beds, Aravind has grown to perform more than 250,000 cataract surgeries a year. And the rate of cataract blindness in Tamil Nadu has been cut roughly in half.<p>&gt; Aravind&#x27;s business model worked because it developed a radically efficient surgical model, with each surgeon performing an average of 2,000 surgeries per year, compared to 300 annually elsewhere in India. Plus it still maintained the dignity of patients while continuing to deliver world-class surgical quality. For example, Aravind&#x27;s rate of complications is half that of the United Kingdom&#x27;s National Health Service ... In 1992, it built a manufacturing facility to make its own intraocular lenses, a key element of modern cataract surgery—driving down the cost per lens from about $70 to $2.<p>Source: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bridgespan.org&#x2F;aravind-eye-hospital" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bridgespan.org&#x2F;aravind-eye-hospital</a>
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