Cataract Chronicles

The Rise of Primary Eye Care Clinics & the Birth of BBH Eye Foundation

Photo (left to right): Dr. Gary Barth, Jack Blanks, & Gary Hahn in Myanmar. Among the many innovative activities of Seva Foundation, the Board has emphasized bringing ophthalmic services to rural communities. These clinics are called Primary Eye Care Clinics since they provide refractions, ocular first ...

2025-04-02T13:59:54-07:00

Remarkable Spinoff – Eye Care Centers Raise Rural Women’s Status

Elevating the status of women in many parts of Southeast Asia would benefit women and their families. There are many areas where empowering women would uplift society. One way to elevate women's status and self-esteem is to train them to work in eye clinics and assist with ...

2025-02-13T08:43:00-08:00

A California Corneal Transplant Tissue Donor Allowed Her to Return to School

I founded and was the Medical Director of a Corneal Transplant Eye Bank in Santa Rosa.The Medical Director of Seva Foundation Chundak Tenzing asked me to help complete the training cycle for this yet-to-be-launched corneal transplant program in Western Nepal.In the two-thirds of the country west of Kathmandu, ...

2024-12-16T08:44:16-08:00

Dr. Barth’s Upside-Down Start to Asia Charity Work

At age 20, I went to India for a Williams College-sponsored semester of Indian Art and Religion. During the five months, I witnessed so much blindness that I redirected my studies to medicine. For 40 years, I have dedicated myself to working in India, Nepal, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Having ...

2024-11-19T08:49:27-08:00