In Vietnam ICEE has recently opened Vision Centres in provincial areas to deliver eye care services and developed refraction courses to upscale the number of those trained and able to manage the demand for correction of refractive error for the country's 86 million people.

ICEE work has been underway since 2008. In line with the National Blindness Prevention Plan for Vietnam, ICEE has both short and long term goals for programmes in Vietnam. Ambitious in scope, programmes aim to achieve long term sustainability of services and broad impact for the population, desperately in need of the simplest of eye care services and affordable correction of refractive error.

In Vietnam ICEE aims to:

• Provide sufficient equipment for establishment of refraction services
• Train teachers and school medical workers in screening for vision problems in school children and provision of screenings and affordable spectacles
• Provision of medical treatment for eye diseases for school children
• Train refractionists and spectacle technicians in accordance with the Vietnam National Plan for Blindness Prevention and Eye Care 2010–2013
• Develop schools of optometry in collaboration with local partners and other NGOs
  

The Vietnam National Plan for Blindness Prevention and Eye Care 2010–2013continues to be rolled out tackling the high number of refractive error patients in the country.

Training eye care personnel is in sharp focus. ICEE has developed training materials in Vietnamese. Until recently, there was only one refraction training course offered in Vietnam based at the Ho Chi Minh City Eye Hospital (HCMCEH). To exponentially increase the number of those trained in refraction ICEE conducts Train the Trainers courses. A steady but substantial increase in the number of eye care personnel trained in performing refraction and vision correction has begun thanks to this programme.

Our efforts in Vietnam have not gone unnoticed. The Vietnam National Ophthalmologists Association recently awarded ICEE a Certificate of Merit in recognition of the effective implementation of eye care activities contributing to the Prevention of Blindness Programme.

In addition to the training programmes, ICEE Vision Centres in Vietnam are forging ahead in regions largely untouched - making a difference to so many communities where previously the most basic eye care was inaccessible.

Funders:

• AusAID Avoidable Blindness Initiative through the Vision 2020 Global Consortium
  

Partners:

• Optometry Giving Sight
• Eye Care Foundation
• CBM
• Ho Chi Minh City Eye Hospital
• Vietnam National Institute of Ophthalmology (VNIO)