ICEE opens Vision Centre in Kolonnawa
September 13, 2010 06:18 pm
The International Centre for Eye-care Education (ICEE) opened a Vision Care centre at Kollonnawa recently.
Established over a decade ago, the International Centre for Eye-care Education (ICEE) began its work in Sri Lanka following the 2004 Tsunami. Since then, the organization has been heavily involved in the prevention of avoidable blindness through providing free eye examinations and low cost spectacles to persons in need. The latest Vision centre will provide these facilities to the local community giving the residents of the area access to facilities that will improve their sight.
Ms. Tricia Keys, ICEE Programmes Manager for the Asia Pacific said, “The Kolonnawa Vision Centre is part of a larger project that will provide comprehensive, affordable and sustainable vision care to all people living in the region, regardless of their economic situation. In Sri Lanka, like many parts of the world, a person can be blind simply because they do not have a pair of glasses - a senseless loss of an individual’s ability to work, learn or provide for their family. This Centre will not only help alleviate the problem by providing access to vision care, it will also be a medium to educate the community that, in the majority of cases, vision problems can often be corrected”.
She mainly thanked the Standard Chartered Bank for their support in making this programme a reality.
The ICEE Vision Centres’ support the intentions of VISION 2020, which aims to reduce avoidable blindness and vision impairment due to uncorrected refracted error (the need for glasses to see clearly). Uncorrected refractive error is recognised in Sri Lanka as a priority condition to be addressed through the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Blindness.
ICEE Country Representative for Sri Lanka, Ms. Anitha Munasinghe, speaking at the event emphasized the long term impact the initiative would have on the provision of affordable eye care services in Kolonnawa.
Staffed mainly by residents of the area who have been trained to perform eye examinations, prescribe glasses, refer patients to other eye care services and dispense glasses, this initiative will also empower these individuals with a means of income through work that enables them to contribute to their community.
Also speaking at the event Anirvan Ghosh Dastidar, Acting CEO of Standard Chartered Bank emphasized the importance of alleviating preventable blindness around the world. “The loss of an individual’s eyesight because of the inability to afford necessary checkups and a high cost of glasses is a tragedy. We are proud to be a part of this initiative and look forward to a continued partnership with ICEE and our other stakeholders”.
Photo caption: The vision centre in Kolonnawa (inset) Anirvan Ghosh Dastidar - Acting CEO Standard Chartered Bank
About ICEE: International Centre for Eye-care Education (ICEE) is a global non-profit, non-government organisation founded in Australia. In the last ten years ICEE has delivered sustainable eye care services, education and training programmes in more than 40 countries. ICEE is focused on the elimination of avoidable blindness by developing solutions with communities in need of eye care thereby improving opportunities in education, employment and quality of life. ICEE Offices are located in: Sydney, Australia – Durban, South Africa –Colombo, Sri Lanka – Calabar, Nigeria – Kampala, Uganda and Latin America.