SCB and Ispahani Eye Institute partners to restoring sight to 260,000 patients

Standard Chartered Bangladesh and Ispahani Islamia Eye Institute and Hospital (IIEIand 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 in Dhaka city and 250,000 students in Naogaon, Jamalpur, Barishal, Borguna, and Moulvibazar. It will also support the transportation of surgery patients and provide beneficiaries with eyewear, optics, and essential medicine.

Standard Chartered and Ispahani Islamia Eye Institute & Hospital have worked together for over 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 eye-health workers.

Naser Ezaz Bijoy, Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Bangladesh, said, "The social impacts of preventing avoidable vision impairment are vast, ranging from educational attainment, livelihood generation, to poverty eradication. Eliminating avoidable blindness is one of the most cost-effective ways of fighting poverty, with research showing that for every $1 invested in blindness prevention, more than $4 is returned in economic terms.  We feel privileged to be able to partner with Ispahani Islamia Eye Institute and Hospital in this journey. This journey inspired a global programme that touched over 250 million lives worldwide".

Brig Gen AKM Akhtaruzzaman (Retd), Chief Executive Officer, Ispahani Islamia Eye Institute & Hospital (IIEI&H), said, "Our long-standing partnership with Standard Chartered has helped us further our goal to provide quality eye care to the underserved people of the community. We are committed to bringing 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 program, Futuremakers by Standard Chartered, is dedicated to helping the next generation learn, earn, and grow. Futuremakers builds on the legacy of the Bank's previous flagship community programme, Seeing is Believing (SiB). Between 2003 and 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.

As the nation's long-term partner in progress, Standard Chartered has consistently been linked to Bangladesh's inspiring story of growth and resilience.

For almost 120 years, the Bank has been dedicated to driving commerce and growth without leaving people behind, negatively impacting the planet, or creating divisions that diminish our sense of community.