StandChart charity dinner raises fund for blind

DUBAI - Standard Chartered Bank customers and staff together raised $150,000 at a Gala Charity Dinner held on the final night of the recent IMF/World Bank meetings in Dubai recently.

By (BY A STAFF REPORTER)

Published: Tue 30 Sep 2003, 12:29 PM

Last updated: Wed 1 Apr 2015, 9:52 PM

The event was organised to raise vital cash for a Standard Chartered Bank-backed sight restoration project, `Seeing Is Believing’, which aims to restore the sight of 28,000 needlessly blinded people, whose sight can be restored by a simple cataract operation. The fund raising evening will return the sight of at least 5,975 people. The dinner and auction was attended by senior staff and customers including Standard Chartered group chairman Bryan Sanderson, and group executive directors Chris Keljik and Kai Nargolwala.

Chris Keljik, group executive director, with Board responsibility for the Middle East, South Asia, Africa, the United Kingdom and Europe, North America and Latin America said: “It is a privilege for each of us at the Bank to be able to participate in returning sight to these people. People do not go blind by the millions, they go blind one by one, and for each person it is an individual tragedy.” 45 million people today are blind. The more staggering fact is that 80 per cent of this blindness is easily avoidable or curable. Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness accounting for almost 50 per cent of people who cannot see. They can be cured relatively simply and cheaply, with an operation that takes twenty minutes and approximately $25.

“I am incredibly moved by the partnership between our customers and staff which has contributed enough to return sight to at least 5,975 people, “ stated Ray Ferguson, chief executive officer for Standard Chartered Bank, UAE. “The generosity and compassion of our customers and staff are overwhelming, and testament to the generosity of this community.”

The Bank would like to thank all its customers who donated gifts for the auction: African and Eastern, AGMC, Al Futtaim Electronics, Cosmos, Damas Al Abdulla Jewellery, Al Rashideen Trading Company, Dubai Duty Free, Emirates airlines, Gulf Business Machines, Jumeirah International, RAK Ceramics, Oman National Electronics, Redington Gulf, Rivoli Group, RNA Group, Samsung Electronics and Yousuf Habib Group.