12 November 2008
In its renewed effort to help tackle cases of avoidable blindness in developing countries, Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) through its 'Seeing is Believing Initiative' has donated N13 million to two non governmental organizations, Sight Savers International (SSI) and the Nigerian Society for the Blind in support of their fight against avoidable blindness.
Speaking during the Banks fourth annual Walk for Sight held in Lagos last weekend, the SCB Nigeria Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Christopher Knight stated that the Bank's Seeing is Believing (SIB) initiative will give poor, marginalized populations access to complete services from cataract surgery to preventive treatment and specialized medical interventions.
Knight explained that the idea behind the initiative, 'Seeing is Believing' was structured to invest $20 million to fund the development of sustainable eye care services in less advantaged areas of 20 cities across the world'.
According to him "In support of the initiative in Nigeria, we have held a fund raising walk annually in the last three years raising a total of $300 thousand which has helped to fund successful cataract operations (still ongoing) for over 5000 people between January 2006 and July 2008".
On the choice of the NGO's as their implementation partners, Knight posited that the NGOs have been partners chosen in the last three editions and they have been picked once again because of the fact that the bank has found them to be credible institutions with an unwavering commitment to aid the eradication of blindness in Nigeria".
This year's walk which attracted over 600 participants has been described by the bank's staff as an outstanding success.
The participants included management and staff of companies the bank provides financial services for, spouses, children, friends and relatives of their members of staff. Among the corporate organizations that supported this year walk for sight are: 7up Bottling Company, Vee Pee Group, Chi Limited, Chellarams, Studio Press Nigeria Limited, Industrial Cartons Limited, Far East Mercantile, Nagode Industries and Zartech.
Commenting on the walk, Knight said "We are very proud of what we have achieved with our walk for sight initiative in the last three years. However, we could not have done this without the support of a lot of our customers, friends, family members and the media.
Responding to the donation made to the organization, Chief Olu Falomo, the Chairman of the Governing Council, Nigerian society for the Blind, stated that, "we have received unwavering support from Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria for quite a few years now. Without this support, it would have been extremely difficult for us to achieve the objectives of our Vocational training Centre for the Blind in Oshodi".
"Over the years, the bank has provided us with amazing financial, infrastructural and administrative assistance and we will like to express our deep appreciation to the Board, Management and Staff of the bank for their unwavering commitment to the centre" he added.
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