In Tuvalu ICEE optometrists and educators have been involved in providing and developing eye care for a number of years. The geographical spread of this island nation presents quite a challenge in building sustainable eye care services, partly because of the spread of people across lightly populated islands, but also because of limited established health care infrastructure and resources.

Tuvalu is a nation with approximately 10,000 people living on its nine islands. To help fill an existing lack of eye care services, ICEE optometrists, alongside members of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, began annual visits to Tuvalu in 2001. While the visits provided much needed eye care to people suffering from uncorrected refractive error and cataract disease, the Tuvalu Ministry of Health and ICEE were seeking to develop a more sustainable method to ensure ongoing access to basic eye care.

Nurses are the sole providers of health care on Tuvalu outside the main island Funafuti, which is home to the national hospital. The solution developed was to train the nurses in primary eye care. “This is where ICEE fits in. We work in a niche, at the primary eye care level – at the community level, so we always look for collaborators and our models always sit within the bigger framework of the community we are working in.

ICEE has further contributed to the eye care system in Tuvalu through the training of nine junior nurses. By educating nurses in the diagnosis and treatment of basic eye conditions, Tuvalu can take advantage of the existing health care system to provide primary eye care. ICEE also educated a trainer in primary eye care and presbyopic spectacles, enhancing the capacity to build a self-sustaining system.

Together with the Ministry of Health, ICEE has conducted a number of Primary Eye Care Training courses, resulting in Tuvalu now having 22 nurses trained in eye health deployed across nine islands. This is a significant achievement – it means basic eye care, provided by local practitioners based in their communities, is now readily available to people throughout the country.