Organization: International Eye Foundation (IEF)

All Photos INTERNATIONAL EYE FOUNDATION helps people see by preventing blindness and restoring sight in the developing world. The International Eye Foundation is fighting cataract, trachoma, river blindness, and childhood blindness, improving the quality of eye care services, providing affordable ophthalmic supplies, equipment, and medicines, and, building management and financial capacity of eye hospitals that serve poor.

Focus Areas:	Health
Countries Served:	All 12 countries: Cameroon Egypt Ghana Guatemala Honduras India Malawi Mexico Nicaragua Paraguay El Salvador Tanzania, United Republic of   Summary by region: Africa Latin America & Caribbean Asia

Description of Services:
The IEF helps people see through SightReach?, with three program areas. SightReach? Prevention targets the four leading causes of avoidable blindness; cataract, trachoma;river blindness, and childhood blindness, including vitamin A deficiency/child survival. SightReach Surgical?, a social enterprise, provides affordable ophthalmic instruments, equipment and supplies to ophthalmologists and hospitals in developing countries to help lower surgical costs. SightReach? Management strengthens the capacity for financial self-sufficiency of eye care providers through improved management practices and Quality Improvement to expand services. The IEF has official relations with the WHO, and works with Ministries of Health, international NGOs, and local indigenous NGOs in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe.
History:
Corneal transplant pioneer Dr. John Harry King, Jr. founded the IEF in 1961 with a mission of sight restoration and prevention of blindness in developing countries.
Accomplishments & Progress:
In the 70's, IEF established eye care training programs within developing countries and provided scholarships for doctors to study ophthalmology in the US and Europe. In the 80's, IEF mobilized local staff in the developing countries, so that national eye care services could expand. In the last decade, IEF has evolved its innovative programming to change the way eye hospitals provide services. IEF's focus on management and financial sustainability planning has resulted in improved quality of ocular surgery especially for cataract, improved service delivery and outreach, independent management and accounting structures, increased productivity, reduced costs, and innovative income generation mechanism. This is reflected by increases in the number of patients served, patients;accepting; cataract surgery, number of patients receiving free or subsidized care, improved quality of surgical outcomes, and increases in core costs recovered by the hospitals.