Seeing is Believing
HRH The Countess of Wessex is seen smiling while visiting Islamia Eye Hospital to catch sight of eye care at the institute. Standard Chartered Bank's community investment programme "Seeing is Believing" supports the institute in conjunction with Sightsavers International and local partners. Photo: Nasir Ali Mamun
"Seeing is believing" — goes the old proverb, but Standard Chartered Bank has given a new meaning to this old saying. Seeing is Believing (SiB) is a global initiative to help tackle avoidable blindness. SiB is a partnership between Standard Chartered Bank and the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness (IAPB). IAPB is the leading umbrella organisation for NGOs working in the field of eye care. Together with the World Health Organisation, it launched the 'Vision 2020 – The Right to Sight', the global campaign to eliminate avoidable blindness by 2020. Through SiB, Standard Chartered Bank has pledged to continue its existing partnership with Sightsavers to strengthen eye care facilities in Bangladesh by investing USD one million over five years in the Dhaka Urban Comprehensive Eye Care project (DUCEC). There are 150,000 new cataract cases in Bangladesh each year, creating a huge backlog of untreated cases which Seeing Is Believing, Sightsavers and partners like ORBIS International, Hellen Keller International, Christian Blindness Mission (CBM) International, the Fred Hollows Foundation are working to address. SiB has enjoyed phenomenal success since its inception in 2003. It was launched to help celebrate the Bank's 150th anniversary. That year, it exceeded its target to raise enough money for 28,000 sight restorations by double, raising enough money for 56,000 sight restorations. Since then, Seeing is Believing has grown at an astonishing rate. By 2010, SiB will have reached a 10 million people through a variety of initiatives to both prevent and cure blindness. SiB expanded to deal with prevention as well as cure as this is the only sustainable way to try and tackle the increasing numbers of avoidably blind. Her Royal Highness The Countess of Wessex visited Dhaka from March 23-25, 2009 in her capacity as Patron of Vision 2020: The Right to Sight. She is particularly involved with charities relating to children, disabilities and communication problems and is a Global Ambassador for the IAPB. The Countess was in Bangladesh as a guest of the disability agency Sightsavers International and Standard Chartered Bank. Over the course of three days, she looked at the progress that is being made in Dhaka with regards to delivering eye care services to some of the hardest to access communities in the city. She met Professor Ruhul Haque, Honorable Minister of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of Bangladesh as well as leading representatives from the international eye care agencies operating in Bangladesh. At an informal meeting at the British High Commission in Dhaka, she listened to the conversation among the government officials, representative from Ophthalmological Society of Bangladesh (OSB), members of INGO Forum operating in Bangladesh, pioneer ophthalmologists of the country. In the fruitful meeting, the mechanisms of increasing eye care facilities in both public and private set up in Bangladesh were discussed. HRH the Countess asked the British High Commissioner to explore the possibilities of DFID's involvement in eye care sector. Dr Wahidul Islam, Country Director of Sightsavers International in Bangladesh commented, "Blindness and poverty are inextricably linked. People with disability are more likely to be unemployed and tend to have fewer opportunities to access a quality education. We hope that the visit by HRH The Countess of Wessex will inspire the Government of Bangladesh and all key stakeholders to redouble their efforts when it comes to ensuring eye care for all." October 2008 marks the launch of Seeing is Believing – A New Vision. Standard Chartered Bank will invest USD 20 million to fund the development of sustainable eye care services in less advantaged areas of 20 cities. This new phase of the programme will give poor, marginalised populations access to complete services from cataract surgery, to preventative treatment and specialised medical interventions. The President of IAPB described the work proposed as a 'trail blazer' corporate social responsibility initiative in this area.
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