SEE International Celebrates 50 Years and 750,000 Sight-Restoring Surgeries

On October 24, more than 200 supporters, including volunteer ophthalmologists from across the country and the developing world, gathered at the Hilton S.B. Beachfront Resort to celebrate SEE International’s 50th anniversary and the 750,000 sight-restoring surgeries it has done in 54 countries.

Based in Goleta, SEE International keeps a low profile (its last gala was 10 years ago), preferring to focus on its transformative work of performing sight-restoring cataract surgeries in developing countries. Its 650 volunteer physicians do surgeries in clinics that run for a few days to a couple of weeks, with100 surgeries being performed during the average clinic. 

Generous volunteer doctors not only donate their time and expertise, but also pay their own travel expenses to work alongside other volunteer doctors in the host country, enabling SEE to maximize the impact of donor dollars. With this brilliant formula, which also includes a combination of donated and carefully sourced medical supplies, SEE turns every incremental $100 donated into the gift of sight for a blind individual. 

SEE performs several types of procedures, but 95 percent of its work is cataract removal. This month alone, SEE will hold clinics in Jamaica, Honduras, Peru, Belize, Bolivia, the Philippines, Guatemala, Eswatini, and Tanzania. Last year, SEE physicians performed more than 55,000 surgeries.

SEE also conducts training courses with volunteer physician instructors, training medical professionals from developed and developing countries in the surgical technique used in the field. This 15-minute procedure, manual small incision cataract surgery, does not require fancy equipment. Last year, SEE trained 240 medical professionals.

Guests at the event enjoyed a reception on the rooftop, followed by dinner in a ballroom. CEO Donald Bell welcomed guests and after acknowledging the tremendous struggle blind individuals face, he turned to the economic implications of their condition — that losing sight extends the cycle of poverty by excluding adults from the workforce when they are blind or when their children are blind and they become caregivers.

Bell emphasized SEE’s investment in training and capacity building in developing countries to create enduring change. Since 2006, it has trained more than 1,200 ophthalmologists.

Guests heard from some of SEE’s amazing humanitarian doctors. Dr. Helena Ndume explained how in the past 27 years, the National Blindness Prevention Programme, which she runs in her country of Namibia, has restored sight to more than 50,000 people through the camps it runs with support from SEE. 

Nduma related how “in our developing world, sight can often be the difference between surviving and starving. Without their sight, people cannot work to support themselves or their families.” She shared the poignant story of restoring sight to a woman who had given birth six months earlier, watching the woman come out of surgery and see her child for the very first time.

Boardmember Dr. Jeffrey Levenson shared how he became a passionate volunteer after experiencing vision loss to cataracts and then having vision restored. “Right now, there are millions of people all over the world who have lost their independence, their capacity to support themselves and their families, their ability to do the things they love, because they are living with cataracts, a condition that takes just 15 minutes to cure. So, I knew I would never sleep peacefully again, until I paid my own gift forward.” Levenson has done clinics with SEE in multiple countries, and each trip instills “a deeper love and passion for the work.”

Dr. Rajesh Saini explained how his hospital in India, the Siliguri Greater Lions Eye Hospital, benefits from SEE’s Direct Supply Support Program, through which it receives necessary supplies, enabling it to increase the number of sight-restoring surgeries it does to more than 26,000 last year. Supplies, some of which are donated by Alcon, are provided also to partners in Nepal, Namibia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and soon the Philippines.

SEE also serves the local community with a program in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties that provides eye exams and glasses at no cost. It also has a limited referral program for surgeries. Although Medi-Cal covers exams and glasses for low-income Californians, including now undocumented individuals, many people are reticent to enroll and, according to SEE, there is a shortage of providers accepting Medi-Cal patients, creating a significant need locally for the services SEE provides. This year, the program is on track to serve 6,000 patients.

Boardmember Dr. Madhavi Reddy, an awe-inspiring SEE volunteer ophthalmologist for the past 20 years, acknowledged SEE’s accomplishments, but noted that there are still roughly 40 million blind people in the world. So, she asked, “should we continue chipping away at it, or is it time to use some dynamite?” She unveiled SEE’s bold expansion plans, if funding allows — sponsoring subspecialty training for developing country doctors, expanding its supply program, increasing its roster of volunteer doctors who provide training, and expanding its domestic program.

Among those honored was Sansum Clinic for its generous donation of multiple types of surgical services and Santa Barbara ophthalmologist Dr. Michael Paveloff for services he has provided both locally and internationally.