Naidoo Kovin
Organization: International Center for Eye Care Education (ICEE)
Year Founded: 1999
Country: South Africa
Website: www.icee.org
ICEE believes that fair access to basic vision care services can provide individuals with the chance for improved quality of life and supports the development of healthy and prosperous communities. Focus: Health, Eye care Geographic Area of Impact: South Africa, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia ( Southern Africa) , Uganda, Tanzania, Zanzibar and Eriterea ( East Africa) , Nigeria, Ghana and Gambia ( West Africa) Australia, Cambodia, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia and UAE. Model: Hybrid Non-Profit Number of Direct Beneficiaries: 291,182 (2009) Annual Budget: US$ 1.8 Million Percentage Earned Revenue: 30% Recognition: Regional Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Africa, 2010 Background At least 670 million people, mostly in the developing world, are blind or vision impaired simply because they don’t have access to a basic eye examination and a pair of glasses. Of those at least 153 million suffer from treatable blindness or vision impairment at distance and a further 517 million due to near sightedness, all through uncorrected refractive error. The link between poverty and avoidable blindness is indisputable. Uncorrected vision impairment causes profound economic disadvantages to individuals, their families and societies. People living with uncorrected vision impairment are most likely to be excluded from basic education, suffer from isolation and have fewer employment opportunities. Innovation and Activities The International Centre for Eyecare Education (ICEE) is a not-for-profit, non-government, development organization founded in 1998. ICEE’s mission is to eliminate avoidable blindness and visual impairment due to Uncorrected Refractive Error (URE), by developing sustainable solutions for communities in need. ICEE uses a four-pronged strategy of advocacy (promoting eyecare strategies to government and stakeholders); education (training eye care personnel), infrastructure (providing adequate facilities and supply of equipment); and research (keeping programmes relevant and effective). ICEE works in eleven countries in Africa, fourteen in Asia, and two in both the Middle East and Latin America. It provides direct services of screening and prescribing glasses through its “Vision Centres”. Importantly, it also focuses on capacity building in the public sector to deliver eye care services, stimulating the professional role of optometrists and eye care providers, thereby expanding and sustaining its impact to beneficiaries. It has also developed its own global supply chain and resource centre to bring down the cost of spectacles and equipment dramatically for their own services, but also for other NGOs and public providers. The Entrepreneur Professor Brien Holden and Professor Kovin Naidoo are both internationally recognized and prominent public health leaders in eyecare and eminent academics in Optometry. They met during a conference in South Korea in 1997 sharing a similar vision to establish an new approach to preventable blindness and set up ICEE in both Australia and South Africa. Holden has had an illustrious international career in optometry and vision science and holds leadership positions in academia, non-profit and corporate sectors, creating substantial impact in eyecare in Australia and Asia. Naidoo started out as a political activist in South Africa, and after the democratic elections in 1994 he made the decision to use his profession as a vehicle to pursue social injustices and remains passionate about the socio-economic impact that preventable blindness has on people and developing the global delivery systems to make basic eye care accessible to all.
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