Standard Chartered, Ispahani Hospital set to deliver gift of sight to 260,000

Standard Chartered Bangladesh and Ispahani Islamia Eye Institute & Hospital (IIEI&H) have partnered to set up 71 comprehensive Eye Health Camps for adult beneficiaries and 1,667 Student Sight Testing Programmes (SSTP) for school-going children.

The initiative will reach 10,000 adults across the capital and 250,000 students across Naogaon, Jamalpur, Barishal, Borguna and Moulvibazar districts. The initiative will also support the transportation of surgery patients and provide beneficiaries with eyewear, optics, and essential medicine, said a press release here today.

Standard Chartered and Ispahani Islamia Eye Institute & Hospital have been working together for more than 20 years to prevent avoidable blindness. 

Through this partnership, Standard Chartered Bangladesh is addressing the needs of marginalised and vulnerable groups through targeted interventions and service expansion, both in terms of technology and infrastructure investments, and through upskilling and training of eye-health workers.

Naser Ezaz Bijoy, chief executive officer (CEO) of Standard Chartered Bangladesh, said, "We feel privileged to be able to partner with Ispahani Islamia Eye Institute and Hospital in this journey, a journey that inspired a global programme that touched over 250 million lives worldwide."

Brigadier General AKM Akhtaruzzaman (Retd), CEO of Ispahani Islamia Eye Institute & Hospital (IIEI&H), said, "We are committed to bring impactful change in the lives of our patients with the gift of sight and we are thankful for the constant support Standard Chartered has provided us with for more than 20 years."

The Bank's flagship community engagement programme, Futuremakers by Standard Chartered, is dedicated to helping the next generation to learn, earn and grow. 

Futuremakers, builds on the legacy of the Bank's previous flagship community programme - Seeing is Believing (SiB). 

Between 2003 to 2020, the initiative reached 250 million people-changing their lives for the better by helping to tackle avoidable blindness around the world.
 
Islamia Eye Institute and Hospital is the birthplace of SiB. Hand-in-hand, the Bank and the Eye Institute have been able to change lives for the better across the country.