CSD Home * Jan Provis * Krisztina Valter * Jonathan Stone * Lauren Marotte
CSD undertakes a number of activities to interact with the broader community
Peter Kozulin in Sri Lanka * Teaching students about being scientists
ICEE International Eye Care Program – Sri Lanka 2006
Peter Kozulin BOptom
The International Centre for Eye care Education (ICEE) is a non-government organization dedicated to providing basic eye care services to people who have little accesses to such services in Australia and across the world. Soon after the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004, ICEE began providing eye care to the affected coastal regions in Sri Lanka. I volunteered to lend my optometry skills to the Sri Lanka program in March-April 2006.
I joined seven other volunteers during this trip including four other optometrists, two eye care educators and a representative from one of the program’s sponsors. While the optometrists provided basic eye care to people in several regions along the east coast of Sri Lanka (mainly around Batticoloa), the educators trained local Sri Lankan health workers in refraction and primary eye care. Over a two week period, 1842 patients were seen, 1320 spectacles were prescribed and 148 referrals for further treatment such as cataract removal were made. The education of the health workers was part of an ongoing goal at ICEE to provide a sustainable eye care service and raise eye health awareness within local communities. The most common eye disorders detected in the regions visited were uncorrected refractive error, cataracts, glaucoma and vitamin A deficiency.
Whilst in rural communities proximal to Batticaloa, a These 2 women were early presbyopes, meaning they
town on the east coast of Sri Lanka, we visited a primary school required spectacles to help correct their near
and the 3 girls in the picture (about 8-10 yo) were waiting vision. They benefited from the prescription of free
for their eye test. glasses.
Peter using his retinoscope to objectively refract the patient.
During this test the patient wears a trial frame that holds lenses
that are needed during the refraction. Peter holds a lens rack that
contains lenses of different power that help him to refract the patient.