Who We Are
The International Centre for Eyecare Education (ICEE – pronounced “I see”) is a not-for-profit organisation founded in 1998. Our vision is to create a world where every individual has access to affordable eye care.
We are a taskforce member of Vision 2020: The Right to Sight, an initiative of the World Health Organization and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness.
The Situation
At least 300 million people, mostly in the developing world, are blind or vision impaired simply because they don’t have access to a basic eye examination and a pair of glasses. Of those at least 153 million suffer from treatable blindness or vision impairment at distance and a further 150 million due to near sightedness, all through uncorrected refractive error.
The Issue
This unnecessary disability has a major impact on people’s lives – restricting the ability to secure a livelihood, severely limiting child and adult education, crucially impacting on the economic development and preventing people from participating fully in their communities.
The Good News
In an era characterised by great prosperity for many, incredible technological capabilities and easy access to information, the capacity to exists to solve this problem. In addition to the tragic human cost, it makes simple economic sense - WHO estimates put the impact of Vision Impairment on the world at $42 billion per annum, by 2020, it is expected to be $110 billion.
ICEE has the people, programmes and passion to do it – but we need funding.
Our Work
Over 300 million people are blind or vision impaired simply because they don’t have access to an eye examination and a pair of glasses. Our mission is to ensure that the lives of all people worldwide are enriched by vision.
Since 1998, when ICEE was founded in Australia, we have been developing and implementing sustainable solutions for improved eye care access. We collaborate with governments, communities and other International Non-government Organisations (INGOs) to develop long term solutions by investing in local eye care education, professional education, appropriate service delivery systems and research to ensure sustainable eye care in underserved communities.
ICEE provides
Human resource development from local eye health worker education to professional development, ICEE delivers eye care education to healthcare personnel at all levels to increase access in underserved communities.
Sustainable systems eye care services implemented through Vision Centres globally to achieve the elimination of avoidable blindness and vision impairment due to uncorrected refractive error.
Research to better inform our training services, programme development and the advocacy work we do in identified regions.
Collaboration with other INGOs, governments, industry partners and community services to ensure community programmes are resourced, supported and sustainable.
Our Strategy
Our plan is simple:
- Train enough local eye care personnel to conduct eye examinations and prescribe glasses.
- Make sure the spectacles are available and affordable.
- Ensure the necessary local infrastructure to support these services exists on an ongoing basis.
The solution is straight forward, but the implementation demands substantial human and financial resources.
How We Work
Our strategy to eliminate uncorrected refractive error is guided by sustainability, empowerment and care.
All ICEE activities are designed to facilitate the establishment of permanent eye care services throughout the world, by helping equip communities with the necessary skills and resources to build and sustain their own services.
Three primary areas of activity form the foundation of this strategy”
1. Education
ICEE channels its energy and resources into developing and delivering education and training models that will exponentially increase the number of eye care workers available to examine and treat patients.
ICEE approaches this task in two ways:
- We sent our professional educators to conduct training programmes for the different levels of personnel necessary to provide basic eye care.
- Our educators also train practitioners to act as educators. This includes supplying trainees with comprehensive training modules that provide the necessary curricula and teaching skills to conduct training.
The second step is a major component of our strategy, allowing local practitioners to train eye care personnel and putting ownership of eye care systems into the hands of local communities of professionals. An additional aim of our programmes is the generation of employment opportunities and the building of skills for local people.
2. Infrastructure
Eye care workers need the facilities, equipment and glasses to ensure services are sustainable. As part of our programmes we oversee and invest in the establishment of:
- Vision Centres – staffed by trained personnel to provide basic eye care.
- Optical Workshops – equipped with the facilities and skilled personnel to dispense and custom make glasses.
- Mobile Outreach Clinics – temporary facilities that service remote communities.
- Global Resource Centres – provide a reliable and affordable supply of glasses and equipment.
All of our activities involve extensive negotiations with governments and local stakeholders to ensure appropriateness and support for our programmes.
This is necessary to ensure our programmes and future eye care services are fully integrated with, and supported by, existing health care systems.
3. Research
The planning stage of our work is painstaking and meticulous, but it ensures our programmes are successful and fulfil their objectives.
Our planning is augmented by ongoing research activities that monitor and evaluate all programmes, ensuring our models are being constantly refined and improved – providing better outcomes for eye care patients and trainees and use of our resources.
