Organisation mission statement
The mission of IRIS is to provide and support activities that prevent and cure blindness and restore the sight of disadvantaged people living in Cambodia.

Target group
Eye Clinic programs in Kampot, Battambang and Pursat provinces will tackle blindness and blindness prevention for all sectors of the community. IRIS support will be targeted at the poorest of the poor and at building capacity within the health system and educating people on preventive measures. The IRIS partnership with the Association of Blind in Cambodia and Cambodia Development Mission for Disabled aims to promote increased awareness of eye care issues amongst villagers living in Kampot, Battambang and Pursat provinces. In addition, IRIS will promote eye care referral systems in Kampot, Pursat and Battambang provinces through providing primary eye care training to health center staff and village health volunteers. The annual outreach eye care program aims to prevent and to cure blindness amongst the poorest of the poor in provinces of Cambodia that remain without eye care facilities. Other programs provide for training more eye nurses, upgrading existing nurses.

Project Purpose
The main purpose of IRIS programs is to facilitate and enable, through a partnership approach wherever possible, access to eye care services and blindness prevention surgery for poor Cambodians at subsidized rates. In addition, IRIS programs are designed to build the capacity of provincial eye units to increase, through a step by step approach, the number of surgeries they are able to perform each year. IRIS's on-going support to the National Sub-Committee for Prevention of Blindness is a further example of our commitment to strengthening national capacity to oversee and develop eye care services in future years. The IRIS/NPEH annual eye camp program provides a regular eye care services to people living in those provinces of Cambodia that remain without an eye clinic. The training health center staff and village health volunteers is seen as a mechanism for gradually strengthening province-wide eye care referral networks.

Targets Description 

• 1500 people will have had their sight restored by having cataract surgery at 3 eye clinics. (Kampot, Pursat
  and Battambang Clinic)
• 550 people will have had their sight restored through having eye surgeries for conditions other than cataracts
  at 3 eye clinics. (Kampot, Pursat and Battambang)
• 3 Refraction services and optical workshops will be established at eye clinics in Battambang, Pursat and
  Kampot and be dispensing glasses to people with visual impairment. 
• 2,700 people will have had eye examinations in the provinces of Kampot and Pursat (75 people a day x 2
  visits a months x 12 months at Kampot and 75 people a day x 1 visit a month x 12 months at Pursat)    
• Training of an additional ophthalmic nurse for Kampot clinic and nurses who have attended upgrade training
  from Kampong Cham and Battambang will be providing an improved services at their eye clinics.
• Health Center staff will have attended primary eye care training courses and will be referring people to
  eye clinic at Kampot and Pursat.
• 1415 people will have been supported with transport subsidy for their visits to eye clinics. (initial consultation,
  surgery and follow-up visits) 
• 630 people from 5 provinces will have had their sight restored by the IRIS/National Sub Committee for the
  Prevention of Blindness annual eye camp program. 
• Enable the National Programme for Eye Health to continue to function during 2010 by supporting salaries and
  administrative costs. 
• IRIS staff (3) will have increased knowledge and skill having completed management, language and computer
  training.