Cambodia is a country with incredible natural beauty. Despite this striking backdrop, life is difficult as Cambodia remains one of the poorest nations in the world. AusAID reports that approximately 35% of the population live in extreme poverty.

Avoidable blindness is one of Cambodia’s leading causes of disability, but the average monthly income is barely enough to support a family, let alone pay for eye care. Glasses, when available, are often expensive and eye care services are inadequate, compounding the problem.

The solution is an eye care model, developed by ICEE Board Member and LV Prasad Eye Institute Founder, Dr Nag Rao, which delivers eye care where it is needed.

Simply executed and highly effective, the model is founded on trained eye care personnel with varying levels of expertise, working in facilities spread amongst rural and urban areas. Rural Vision Centres provide basic care to areas where no form of eye care exists, or where adequate care is unlikely to exist in the foreseeable future, and urban facilities act as a referral centre for those patients with complicated diagnosis and treatment needs.

In Phnom Penh an ICEE Vision Centre, an adaptation of the LV Prasad model, allows ICEE to begin to meet the challenges of providing sustainable eye care.

Seila Chea, Phnom Penh, Vision Centre Manager, explains that people in Cambodia are generally excluded from receiving eye care due to cost and other barriers. “At ICEE we are able to eliminate those barriers, overcome inequalities and extend eye care services. ICEE Vision Centres offer eye screening services, refraction, low vision assessment, dispensing of spectacles, and when appropriate, referrals for serious eye conditions”, he said.

“Importantly, we are able to provide sustainable eye care to a lot of people but we are also educating the people of Cambodia that they do not have to lose their vision - there is an alternative. That is very important,” added Seila.