KATHMANDU:

On World sight Day October 12, 2006, Standard Chartered Group in London launched the next phase of its Seeing Is Believing programme with the aim of making a difference to the lives of 10 million people by World Sight Day 2010.

On this occasion, with the objective of making some difference in this area and contributing towards the elimination of avoidable blindness, Standard Chartered Bank Nepal and Tilganga Eye Center (TEC) signed an agreement on October 15, states a Standard Chartered press release.

According to this agreement TEC will conduct screening camps between October 2006 and July 2007 for the underserved population of Kathmandu Valley and it’ neighbouring districts and the bank will sponsor cataract surgeries at the Tilganga hospital in Kathmandu for 500 needy patients identified in these camps.

This agreement was signed by Dr. Sanduk Ruit, Medical Director of TEC and Aniruddha Bose, Acting CEO of SCBNL at TEC in Kathmandu.

These cataract surgeries are being sponsored from the funds raised by the bank through a walkathon, which was conducted by the bank in partnership with some key partners, Surya Enterprises as the main sponsor of this event, National Insurance Co Ltd, and Group 4 Falck as sponsors and support from Mercantile, World Link, Bhatbhateni Supermarket.

The bank and its people conduct events to raise awareness and funds for community initiatives — ‘Seeing is Believing’ being one of the major ones. The bank has planned another walkathon on November 11.