World Council of Optometry

27 September 2011

MEDIA ALERT

ICEE Spanish Refraction Manual Launch

It’s an exciting time to be involved in the world of primary eye care in Latin America this week. The International Centre for Eyecare Education (ICEE) launches the Spanish Refraction Manual.

Launch Date: Friday 30 September 2011

Launch Venue: XVIII Congress of Optometry and Optics in La Serena, Chile, South America

The ICEE Spanish Refraction Manual will be launched at the Congress by Nelson Rivera OD - ICEE Regional Officer for Latin America, alongside selected guest speakers from across Latin America.

This valuable new resource offers all the essential components to facilitate comprehensive refraction training for eye care professionals. In the near future, ICEE plans to issue a vast collection of similar educational notes in Spanish to promote and facilitate eye care development in the world.

Background: The Spanish Refraction Manual is a multi-layered, interactive education resource that takes students and teachers through refraction (visual impairment) training in an uncomplicated way. ICEE released the English version of the Refraction Manual in 2009 and its success has fuelled the release of the Spanish version today in Chile.

The ICEE Spanish Refraction Manual may be used for human resource development as part of VISION 2020: The Right to Sight aiming to ensure blindness and vision impairment are no longer barriers to people’s full participation in their communities.

International Centre for Eyecare Education (ICEE pron. “I See”) is a global non-profit, non-governmental organisation. In the last thirteen years ICEE has delivered sustainable eye care services, education and training programmes in more than 40 countries. ICEE is focused on the elimination of uncorrected vision impairment and avoidable blindness by developing eye care solutions within communities in most need, thereby improving opportunities in education, employment and quality of life. ICEE is supported by the Brien Holden Vision Institute and Optometry Giving Sight. For more info, visit our website: www.icee.org

Vision impairment is unequally distributed worldwide; about 87% of visually impaired people live in developing countries, 82% of all people who are visually impaired are aged 50 and older (although they represent only 19% of the world’s population), and women are significantly more likely to be visually impaired than men, in all regions of the world and at all ages.