Searching for the Sunrise
By Shwetha Sridharan

In 1978, a strong-willed French-Swiss doctor named Nicole Grasset made a big move. Nicole wanted to save the lives of Nepali children whose eyes were unhealthy, yet completely treatable. Her previous work on smallpox eradication throughout Southeast Asia took her to small villages where the epidemic was surging. Now, she was tackling something a little more hidden, something harder to identify — needless blindness and visual impairment. She co-led the Nepal Blindness Survey in 14 zones across almost 40,000 people, the results of which are still being utilized by public health experts today. Nicole’s dream catapulted a public health movement to find and treat people who could not see clearly, but did not know they could be helped. Someone who has a visual acuity of 20/400 or less is considered blind by the World Health Organization — right now that is 39 million people on our planet, 80% of who could see again.

For the rural farmer in Nepal, being blind means not being able to tend his crops, chop wood for the cold winter or pick up his grandchild. He is faced with a debilitation that affects not only his health and his livelihood, but most importantly his happiness. He is entirely dependent on his family because he can only see ‘cloudiness,’ a symptom of cataract. While a rural farmer in Nepal may have the good fortune of an able son to take care of him and lead him down steep Nepali hillsides, a seamstress in India is entirely helpless. Being a woman, she is less likely to receive care and more likely to unnecessarily go blind. She can no longer thread her needle or match the seams to construct a blouse. Her sharp vision has deteriorated so much that she may prick herself many times before she realizes that it is cataract that clouds her eyes. A 15-minute cataract surgery can save the eyesight of both the farmer and the seamstress.

When TOMS and Seva Foundation connected in 2010, we knew that this gap needed to be filled. Both TOMS and Seva understood that the potential to serve blind and visually impaired people was imminent. As a Program Coordinator for Seva, I have seen the result of TOMS support in four countries, and understand how crucial TOMS’ decision to send employees on in-country trips to see Sight Giving work has been. The moment we hear the joy of the woman who belts out a patriotic song when her eye patch is removed, we realize why we are there. It is to be present and to celebrate the renewed life of people who can now live independently. It is a gift to receive sight back, and a gift to be witness to that. TOMS employees I have met are compelled by this experience - being in the presence of people who can see again for free or at a subsidized cost because of Seva’s committed partners supported by TOMS.

Cantero Baez, a soft-spoken man in Paraguay exemplified this experience one afternoon in June this year. He is over 70 years old, and had been blind in both eyes for 12 years. When we asked why his kin had not taken him to the hospital, we learned that they had assumed his blindness was unavoidable. When TOMS Sight Giving Partner, Fundación Visión, met Cantero in a rural village during an outreach activity to identify people who are blind, his eyes had rolled up to reveal just the whites. The driver of the mobile outreach van, a trained vision technician, brought him to the clinic. He had cataracts, and within days, his first eye was operated on. When we met him, he had just received surgery on his second eye. He was about to see properly for the first time in 12 years. “After my first eye was operated on,” Cantero said, “I enjoyed seeing the sunrise again.”

We have learned that we can all be a part of Cantero’s story. Cataract is the leading cause of blindness and it is treatable. Partnerships like TOMS and Seva Foundation are making it happen. Now, it is possible to help another person receive eye care, to give them the chance to see the sunrise, again.


Shwetha Sridharan is the Strategic Partnerships Program Coordinator for Seva Foundation and has worked with TOMS to restore sight in 13 countries with 17 sight giving partners to fulfill their One for One® promise. Since 1978, Seva has been a leading innovator in the delivery of vital eye care services to the world’s most vulnerable communities. Together, TOMS and Seva Foundation have helped to restore sight for over 275,000 people.