The Standard Chartered Bank in partnership with the Ministry of Health conducted a series of primary eye care clinics and distributed spectacles to children in the Colombo Municipal area recently. The initiative is part of the Bank-sponsored Colombo Urban Comprehensive Eye Care (CEC) project.
The initiative was part of Phase IV of the CEC project which forms a wider initiative by the Bank, the Seeing is Believing (SiB) programme aimed at reducing avoidable blindness in the country. A media release stated that in its current phase, the SiB programme will invest US$20 million, half raised and half matched by the Bank. Through Standard Chartered Bank Sri Lanka, US$1 million will be granted to the country in 2010.
In May, the Bank together with the Ministry of Health screened about 400 school children from Colombo and distributed custom-made spectacles.
Supported by SiB funds, the CEC project aims at minimizing avoidable blindness, specifically targeting the growing problem of uncorrected refractive error. The CEC project targets those living in poor urban communities and slums in the districts of Colombo and Kandy. The Bank’s implementation partners include Sight Savers International (SSI), the International Center for Eye Care Education (ICCE) and the Ministry of Health in Sri Lanka.
Since the launch of SiB, the Bank’s volunteers have been actively involved in raising money for the initiative as well as being directly involved in Eye Testing Clinics for children. |
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