Overview

International Resources for the Improvement of Sight is a small, independent, charity, founded in 1996 by Michele Claudel and John Stewart. It specializes in prevention of blindness and restoration of sight. The organization’s name is commonly abbreviated IRIS, but later also IRIS ASIA as a result of the organization’s geographical focus.

History

IRIS was established in response to eye care needs identified amongst the poor in Cambodia. Over the years, financial support has been extended to eye care development programs in Nepal, Lao PDR and Sri Lanka and to programs administered by other charities in Northern India and border camps in Thailand. The organization is a part of VISION 2020, a global initiative of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), for the elimination of avoidable blindness. IRIS also partners with the “Teaching Eye Surgery Foundation“.

Organization

IRIS is registered as a charity in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, France and the United States. The organization employs (2011) nine permanent staff in Cambodia & Sri Lanka (Director of Programs, Program Administrator, Program Manager, Program Officer, Ophthalmic Nurse, Field Workers (3) and a Driver). IRIS programs are partly funded by institutions and private donations: Foundation Dark & Light (the Netherlands) and Frères des nos Frères, the République et Canton de Genève and Foundation Tellus Viva (all based in Switzerland) are examples of IRIS’s major institutional donors for the years 2009 – 2011. IRIS is also grateful to “Yvonne Fuller” for donating funds from the sale of her paintings.

Operations

During the period July 1996 to September 2011, IRIS-funded programs provided 237,211 people with eye examinations; prescribed free spectacles to 40,466 people and restored the sight of 77,685 people with cataracts or other blinding conditions. In Cambodia, IRIS funds the work of 5 eye clinics in 4 provinces, stages eye camps in the 5 provinces of Cambodia that remain without any eye care facilities and runs an annual eye screening, refraction and surgery for cyclo drivers in Phnom Penh. In Nepal, IRIS has funded cataract and other surgeries undertaken at eye camps held in remote, rural areas and in Sri Lanka, IRIS has equipped 5 new eye clinics, provided new equipment to 14 existing eye clinics, organized primary eye care training for tea plantation staff and conducted many eye screening camps that have provided glasses free-of-charge and subsidized the cost of cataract surgery for poor people.