International : Development and Relief Services
Seva Foundation
Compassion in action
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Four stars for innovation
Posted by ChicagoSWer | August 11, 2008 11:40:51 AM
Seva finally earned their fourth Charity Navigator star this year, but they have been a four-star organization in terms of innovation since their inception. Within the three areas that they work, international sight, community development in Chiapas and in Guatemala, and U.S. Native American reservations, they have created new institutions and new ways of doing things. They have a bunch of awards to show for it, i.e. Critical Impact Award (blindness work), NIH "Best Practice" (for diabetes prevention and management in Native American communities) and they have former staffers who have become Ashoka Fellows (David Green), TED Fellow (Larry Brillant) and an eye hospital in India with which they have been closely associated recently won an inaugural award from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Two other interesting aspects of this organization is its historical roots in the late sixties subculture of folks who went to India to find a guru, and their beautiful "Gift of Service" cards. The link to the video about their origins is worth checking out if your computer will play it. The old hippie spirit has mostly faded, (with the exception of the yearly fundraising concert) so folks who don't like that need not worry. They have carried through the most attractive element of that spirit of those times, as least to my mind, and that is the willingness to try something different. If you want to support them by purchasing the "Gift of Service" cards for the winter holiday season, I advise you to put in your orders early in November.