March 13, 2010 Penny Lyons, Executive Director, Seva Canada This afternoon marked the end of the Gender Inequity in Eye Care conference hosted by KCCO. It was a remarkable experience. Each participant was passionate about equity in accessing eye care recognizing that the strategies developed by this group can have implications far beyond the obvious of getting women and children in for eye care services. The knowledge, research and experience shared by each country, institution, and program can be easily replicated into many, if not most, other health interventions and can have a significant impact on  other of the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals such as poverty reduction, education and maternal and child health.  Today, plans were made for the future.  Next steps such as advocacy, public policy, research, human resource investment and public awareness were discussed and each individual present made a commitment to take specific action. There was no championing of individual program or NGO interests.  No arguing about where funding would be directed and who would be represented in a public relations campaign.  Instead it was about as disparate a group of individuals as one could imagine working toward a common goal and a greater good. It’s amazing really the connections that were made:  a Tibetan woman chatting with a Muslim woman from Kenya about common experiences as young, female professionals; a Nepali program manager offering advice to an ophthalmologist from Malawi about creating a community ophthalmology program; participants from 25 years old to 65 years old dancing in a circle at a local Reggae club and just enjoying the music and each other’s company. At Seva we always say that “it’s all done with people”.    This is one of those times.