Seeing is Believing: a look back
What started in 2003 as an employee-driven fundraiser to deliver tens of thousands of sight-restoring surgeries grew into a global initiative
At the end of 2020, Seeing is Believing (SiB) delivered its final eye health project. Over 17 years, the initiative reached 250 million people, changing their lives for the better, helping tackle avoidable blindness around the world.
What started in 2003 as an employee-driven fundraiser to deliver 28,000 sight-restoring surgeries – one for every member of staff at the time – grew into a global initiative. It raised USD104.2 million for eye health projects that provided access to affordable and quality eye health services to people in low- and middle-income countries.
A visionary partnership
For the past 13 years, Standard Chartered and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) worked together to deliver SiB. The partnership illustrated the positive impact that public sector, private sector and civil society can deliver when they tackle a common global challenge.
Together with IAPB, we collaborated with partners across our markets to create sustainable long-term initiatives to tackle avoidable blindness
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“An honour”
SiB Chair David Fein says: “It has been so inspiring to see how Standard Chartered colleagues from all of our markets and across more than a decade helped millions of people regain their sight through the Bank’s flagship Seeing is Believing initiative. More than a billion people struggle with their vision, with around three quarters of people with problems that can either be prevented or cured through programmes like this.”
“Although we have achieved – and indeed surpassed our fundraising goal for Seeing is Believing, we continue to support this critically important cause through Futuremakers by Standard Chartered and the Vision Catalyst Fund.”