Seeing clearly and taking care of your eyes is an important part of a healthy future for everyone according to leading eye care experts who say that 670 million people need eye care.

In Kegalle district this week, getting an eye examination and a pair of spectacles for vision correction has become much easier with the opening of three Vision Centres at Yatiyanthota, Dereniyagla and Warakapola, thanks to the ICEE and their trained local vision technicians.

Professor Holden, a founder and the Chief Executive Officer of ICEE, attended the launch in Yatiyanthota.
“The ICEE Vision Centres will make our goal of providing an eye examination, a referral to other services or a pair of glasses available to 300 000 people in the district before the year 2020,” he said.

According to Professor Holden, “a person could be blind just because they do not have a pair of glasses. It is such a senseless loss of an individual’s ability to work, to learn or provide for a family. We need to let people know that vision problems can be corrected in most cases with a pair of glasses or the right referral to other services.”

The Vision Centres are staffed by trained local vision technicians who perform eye examinations, prescribe glasses, refer patients to other eye care services and dispense glasses.

ICEE Country Representative for Sri Lanka, Ms Anitha Munasinghe, says the Vision Centres are open to the public now. “Ever since we opened our doors the public the response has been overwhelming,“ she said.
“Eye examinations at the Vision Centres are free and glasses are very affordable which is proving to be very popular. It will make a big difference to the people throughout the district – children who are having trouble reading at school, adults having trouble seeing at work and at home – at the ICEE Vision Centres we are helping all of them ,” Ms Munasinghe added.

The Vision Centres support the intentions of Vision2020 Sri Lanka, which aim 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.

Professor Holden, says that, “further ICEE initiatives in Sri Lanka include support for school screening programmes, providing equipment for training of Ophthalmic Technologists, support for hospital equipment maintenance personnel, optometry scholarships, and provision of funding towards the Vision2020 Sri Lanka Secretariat.

“None of this would be possible without the support of LV Prasad Eye Institute, Optometry Giving Sight , Institute for Eye Research, Australia and ICEE partners in Sri Lanka, including Vision 2020, “ Professor Holden added.