In January 2015, I travelled with a group from Seva Canada to document a one-day Eye Camp Seva set up in a remote village in the highlands of Madagascar. It was cyclone season and the roads were nearly impassable. Nonetheless, well over a hundred people came from the surrounding countryside, some walking for days to reach the camp where a medical team examined their eyes.

Candidates for corrective surgery and other procedures to treat preventable blindness were first identified. Among them were several children who we followed on their journey from the village to the hospital in the closest town of Antsirabe, where they underwent operations that same day.

From a baby with a cancerous eye tumour who required radiation therapy and another suffering from congenital cataracts to a little girl with glaucoma (a condition that could easily lead to permanent blindness) and a boy with severe corneal scarring, these brave children courageously underwent immediate surgery. Most of them had never before entered a hospital.

Many of these eye conditions could be prevented, cured or managed with better-funded rural outreach programs. Seva Canada supports the work of surgeons and eye care workers throughout Madagascar, changing lives and giving kids like these the chance to live a life free of blindness. A donation of just $150 can save a child's sight through surgeries and ongoing treatments. To learn more, visit Seva Canada

Read about my experience with Seva in Madagascar in MONTECRISTO Magazine.