World Sight Day Celebration Stories

Click on a country below to see how World Sight Day was celebrated as part of the Seeing is Believing campaign across the world

World Sight Day - 11 October 2007

World Sight Day is an annual event focusing on the problem of global blindness; it aims to raise public awareness around the world about the prevention and treatment of loss of vision. Worldwide, more than 161 million people are visually impaired and 37 million are blind. Majority of the world’s visually impaired people live in low- and middle- income countries.

Seeing is Believing is a global initiative established by Standard Chartered Bank in 2003 which is driven by staff who fundraise, volunteer and raise awareness of avoidable blindness issues. This initiative doubled its original target of 28,000 sight restorations and in total helped to restore the sight of 56,000 people.

This success inspired the team to a new challenge of raising USD 6 million to contribute towards one million sight restorations by World sight Day 2007. This was achieved a year ahead of schedule. The latest challenge of Seeing is Believing is to raise USD 10 million to help 10 million people across 20 countries by World Sight Day 2010 by contributing towards Vision2020’s aim to eliminate avoidable blindness by 2020.

Standard Chartered Bank Group offices around the world will be commemorating this day with local events and fundraising activities. In London, there will be a reception at the House of Lords hosted by Lord Turner of Ecchinswell, Non Executive Director and Richard Meddings, Group Finance Director and Chairman of Seeing is Believing Advisory Committee.

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