In the spirit of giving of this Ramadan, Standard Chartered Foundation (SCF) raised funds to help restore the sight of underprivileged individuals through its ‘Seeing is Believing’ (SiB) sustainability pillar which aims to tackle avoidable blindness.
SCF collaborated with the Malaysian Ministry of Health (MOH) in a three-year Intraocular Lens (IOL) project, bringing eye care support to underprivileged communities in the rural areas of Malaysia, particularly Sabah, Sarawak and the East Coast. Ophthalmology experts from MOH’s ‘Klinik Katarak 1Malaysia’ programme were on hand to conduct the cataract surgeries in Kuala Rompin, Pahang.
The collaboration between SCF and MOH (2013-2015) has brought eye care support, specifically cataract lenses and surgeries, to over 80,000 underprivileged Malaysians, where the foundation initially targeted 3,000 needy cataract patients. Within the three years, RM1.5 million has been invested on quality lenses and over 4,000 successful surgeries have been performed around the country by end of 2015.
Standard Chartered has committed to raising USD100 million for SiB by 2020, with the bank matching every dollar. As at the end of 2015, they have raised USD86.3 million globally. Standard Chartered employees are the driving force behind the success of ‘Seeing is Believing’. Not only do employees volunteer for local eye-care projects, they also contribute about 50 percent of the total funds raised.
The foundation’s effort to raise funds will be further intensified through its participation in this year’s edition of the Standard Chartered KL Marathon’s (SCKLM) ‘Run for a Reason’ (RFAR) charity initiative. Funds collected from RFAR will be channelled towards the IOL Project.
 raised funds to help restore the sight of underprivileged individuals through its ‘Seeing is Believing’ (SiB) sustainability pillar which aims to tackle avoidable blindness.){kind=link}