Moshi, Tanzania March 10, 2010 Penny Lyons, Seva Canada's Executive Director It is wonderful to be back in Tanzania. KCCO is humming with activity as guests arrive from all corners of the globe. The reason for all this activity is KCCO, together with the British Columbia Centre for Epidemiologic and International Ophthalmology and Seva Canada are hosting a gender and health meeting March 11-13 “Reducing Gender Inequity in Eye Care – Translating our Knowledge into Action”. Funding for this meeting was provided by a grant from the Canadian Institute for Health Research.  Participants include representatives from The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, the Tanzanian office of CIDA, the International Development Research Council, Seva partners from Tibet, Nepal, Egypt, India and Seva Foundation as well as participants from across Africa. The goals of the meeting are to: share findings and effective techniques to reduce gender bias; share that knowledge at the national and international level; determine how to use these strategies, developed through eye care, in other health systems such as maternal and child health care; and to create new collaborations across regions and countries. One of the key participants in this meeting is Herieth Mganga, KCCO’s gender and blindness coordinator. I had the opportunity to go into the field with Herieth yesterday. Our purpose was to interview Sentinels – women in the communities who are trained to find people who are suffering from debilitating eye conditions, like cataract, and ensure they receive the treatment they require. We interviewed four Sentinels in the Hai District on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro. These four women, Nkiraeshiwakwa, Hilda, Aziza and Raheima, have little formal education but have been trained by KCCO to detect eye conditions and to provide information and support to those needing services. They are an amazing group of women: dedicated, compassionate and determined. In the two years since the Sentinel program was implemented, the number of women, children and men accessing services has increased dramatically. They are treated with respect and admiration and now provide feedback to KCCO on how the program might be improved to reach more people in need. While in the field we also met with some of the patients, found by the Sentinels and treated through KCCO. The patients, men and women alike, were grateful for the eye care provided and were glowing with praise and pride for the women in their community who had made it possible for them to see again.