ICEE

ICEE (pronounced ‘I See’) - International Centre for Eyecare Education, is a not-for-profit, non-government organisation that is helping to bring much-needed eyecare within reach of people around the world.

Our mission

Our mission is to help eliminate avoidable blindness and impaired vision, particularly due to ‘uncorrected refractive error’ (needing glasses to see).

Our strategy

The ICEE strategy for the development of high quality, sustainable eyecare is summarised by:

Uncorrected refractive error is easily fixed by an eye examination and the provision of appropriate glasses. However, in many developing countries there are little or no eyecare services in place, and glasses are either too expensive or simply not available.

We aim to ensure that everyone has access to the eyecare they need. We do not just want to restore someone’s sight today, but to help develop each country’s capacity to provide eyecare to their communities for years to come.

ICEE activities

We work in collaboration with the community and with other organisations to target local needs, including providing immediate care and building sustainable services.

Project Summary:
Giving Sight in South Africa

The genesis of the Giving Sight in South Africa project can be traced back to a population based study conducted in a Health District in the Kwa Zulu Natal province of South Africa. This study yielded the following results:

• Moderate prevalence of Ocular Disease, Refractive Error and Low Vision but almost no services available.
• Shortage of adequate Human Resources.
• Absence of a coherent district plan.

The Giving Sight in South Africa project was conceptualised to address these inadequacies identified by the study with the intention to achieve the following:

• Integrate primary eye-care services into the District Health system in Kwa Zulu Natal province.
• Integrate refractive error services into the District Health system in Kwa Zulu Natal province.
• Provide affordable spectacles to patients utilizing an income generating model.
• Provide efficient upward and downward referral system for patients.
• Develop information rich data collection systems.
• Create a delivery model for the integration of primary eye-care services generally and refractive error services specifically into the District Health System.

The activities required to support the achievement of the project goals are:

• Development of training programs, advocate for the training of the following human resources:
• Community based workers eg. Community Health Workers; School teachers
• Traditional Healers
• Primary Health Care nurses
• Ophthalmic nurses
• Optometrists
• Clinic Administration/Dispensing Assistants
• Optical Technicians
• Optical Workshop Managers and Administrators.
• Creation of a clinical management protocol that will specify the respective scope of practice for clinical staff.
• Development of referral criteria and pathways.
• Development of a schedule of minimum equipment required to facilitate effective functioning of clinical staff and advocate for the provision of this equipment.
• Development of an affordable spectacle program utilising an income generation model and encompassing the creation of community owned and manned optical workshops.
• Promotion of VISION 2020 district level and provincial level committees.

ICEE believes that the Giving Sight in South Africa project would result in the development of a successful model, the benefits of which will impact on the provision of refractive error services nationally and in the rest of Africa.

The Seeing is Believing initiative developed by Standard Chartered Bank was targeted by ICEE as a partner in this project because of the staff driven nature of the initiative. ICEE believes that this synergy between major global businesses; their staff and global NGO’s will be able to unleash the latent potential to make significant gains in our pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals aimed at eradicating poverty in our world.

 

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