ICEE opens vision centre in Kolonnawa

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.

Tricia Keys, ICEE Asia Pacific Programs Manager 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 thanked the Standard Chartered Bank for their support in making this program 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 recognized in Sri Lanka as a priority condition to be addressed through the National Program for Prevention and Control of Blindness.