Seeing is Believing

Seeing is Believing is the Bank’s flagship sustainability initiative aimed at eradicating avoidable blindness. The challenges of preventable blindness threaten lives and economic prospects across our markets.

Standard Chartered Bank’s major objective for sponsoring the Nairobi Marathon is to raise funds for the eradication of avoidable blindness among children under the age of nine years, through a community initiative called, ‘Seeing is Believing’.

Seeing is Believing is a global programme that tackles preventable and curable blindness. The program was launched in 2003, as part of Standard Chartered Bank’s 150th anniversary celebrations. Since its launch it has helped 23 million people, giving more than 2.78 million people their sight back.

Standard Chartered Bank decided to get involved in the eradication of avoidable blindness because of the reasons below:

39 million people across the world are blind
80 percent of blindness is avoidable
90 percent of avoidable blindness occurs in the developing world
Every five seconds, someone goes blind
One child goes blind every minute and 60 percent of children die within one year of going blind.
Without effective, major intervention, the number of blind people in the world could increase to 76 million by 2020.

At the initial launch of Seeing is Believing in 2003, the Bank’s target was to raise funds to restore the eyesight of 28,000 people. Such was the enthusiasm with which the staff adopted the challenge, that year the Bank achieved twice its initial target. Since then, the ambition of “Seeing is Believing” has grown exponentially.

The Bank then embarked on Phase II of Seeing is Believing where US$6 million was raised to contribute to 1 million sight restorations. This goal was achieved by World Sight Day 2007.

Phase III of “Seeing is Believing” aimed to raise US$10 million to make a difference to the lives of 10 million people across 20 countries by 2010. Thanks to the hard work of the Bank’s employees, the Bank exceeded its target of US$10 million, 3 years ahead of schedule. The Bank was able to implement 32 projects in 17 countries through the funds raised in the third phase.

In 2008, 'A New Vision' was launched. A New Vision marks an evolution in the Bank’s strategy as we progress from funding surgeries and medicine to developing systems and processes to ensure the long-term sustainability of the programme.

This builds on the Bank’s strengths and more closely integrates Seeing is Believing with our business and brand. The move responds to feedback from our partners, the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Through this the Bank committed to invest USD20 million to provide sustainable eye-care services for 20 million people in 20 cities across our footprint by 2014, Nairobi was one of the cities that were considered. The Bank plans to raise USD10 million which will be matched by the Bank. So far, the Bank has been able to raise USD8 million towards the target of USD10 million.

Kenya

In Kenya, Standard Chartered Bank in 2007 partnered with Christian Blind Mission (CBM) in the Seeing is Believing project and they provide the technical expertise in eye care. CBM have since supported the Bank by proactively identifying beneficiary hospitals, giving advice on areas of intervention and purchase of eye care equipment.

Under Phase III the Bank funded the expansion of the eye clinics at Kapsabet District Hospital, Kapenguria District Hospital and Iten District Hospital. The new clinics have consultation rooms, mini theaters and state-of-the-art eye equipment.

Through the proceeds of the Nairobi Marathon, in partnership with Christian Blind Mission, the Bank has sponsored cataract, glaucoma and trauma related surgeries for needy children under the age of nine at five hospitals country wide. These are;

Kikuyu Eye Hospital,
Kwale District Eye Centre,
Lighthouse for Christ Eye Centre, both at the Coast; Sabatia Eye Hospital in Western Kenya and Tenwek Hospital Eye Unit in the Rift Valley.

The Seeing is Believing initiative has helped restore sight to over 4,000 children in Kenya through the hospitals.

How the proceeds from the Nairobi marathon have been used over the years;

2010

With the proceeds of the 2010 Marathon, apart from sponsoring surgeries, Standard Chartered Bank was able to purchase state-of-the-art equipment for two of the beneficiary hospitals as well as put up a child friendly nursery and playroom at Lighthouse for Christ.

Standard Chartered Bank Kenya also launched a pilot project in Kwale, where we cater for follow-up treatment for children who have undergone surgery until they turn 7 years. The program currently has 30 children. This is in line with the Bank’s objective of providing surgery to as many needy children as possible but at the same time guaranteeing quality.

2011

The theme of this year’s marathon, Share the Vision,buildson what we have achieved over the previous eight editions, especially in its contribution to ‘Seeing is Believing”. The Bank’s target is to raise over Ksh.20 million for the charity this year, up from KShs.16 million raised in 2010.

The success of the Seeing is Believing program will depends on the support of thousands of Kenyans who take to the street each year to participate in the marathon. We once again appeal to everyone to register for the marathon and support a charitable cause.

2009

2009 saw Standard Chartered sponsor the seventh edition of the Nairobi Marathon. The 2009 Marathon under the theme, Hesabika Tena, Run and be a hero in someone’s eyes, saw over 15,000 participants taking part.

2009 was also marked with increased awareness and support for Seeing is Believing. A combination of media support and goodwill from friends of the marathon and participants saw the contributions to Seeing is Believing increase by 16%. This contribution facilitated over 700 cataract operations to children under the age of nine in the five projects sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank. The proceeds also supported Kitale, Kapsabet and Iten eye hospitals.

A total of 659 congenital cataract operations were carried out in the five hospitals compared to 371 operations in 2008. These operations were carried out in four hospitals namely, Kikuyu, Sabatia, Kwale and Lighhouse Eye Hospitals.

At Lechet village in the heart of Samburu district, the Bank continued with the Trachoma intervention initiative. The Bank funded another comprehensive trachoma control project where trachoma operations were carried out, tetracycline tubes and mosquito treated nets distributed.

The Bank also sponsored the construction of a rock catchment for harvesting rain water to rid the community of the perennial water problems and improve sanitation systems.

This was the second trachoma control project after we successfully completed a pilot project in neighbouring Siangan village in 2008.

Lighthouse for Christ came on board in 2009. As a result, the sponsorship from Seeing is Believing has impacted the number of children that benefit from paediatric cataract surgery and the hospitals is able to allocate its resources to other eye condition thereby impacting even more people.

2008

In 2008 under the theme Hesabika and give someone the power of sight, the marathon saw over 12,000 participants take part in the Nairobi marathon in a bid to contribute to “Seeing is Believing”. All proceedings for the marathon amounting to Kes.12.5 million were donated to various hospitals in the country under the ‘Seeing is Believing” umbrella. The 2008 funds that were raised were an increase of 33% from 2007. 2008 was exemplary in that The Greatest Race on Earth (GROE) also partnered with “Seeing is Believing” to raise funds across the world.

Kwale District Eye Centre and Sabatia Eye Hospital became the new beneficiaries of “Seeing is Believing” in 2008.

Just like Kikuyu Eye Hospital, Sabatia and Kwale are mission hospitals offering professional eye care services to communities in Western and Coast provinces respectively. Both hospitals target the less fortunate and receive referrals from far and wide.

Over 450 congenital cataract operations were carried out in the four hospitals.

Furthermore, in 2008, Standard Chartered Group invested in the expansion and capacity building of the eye units in three eye hospitals in the Rift Valley. These are Iten, Kapsabet and Kapenguria district hospitals.

The expansion contributed substantially to the strengthening of primary eye care systems and also eased pressure on the Moi Referral Hospital which is the only referral centre for all eye care services in the Rift Valley. This intervention increased the level of comprehensive eye care services to the affected populations, improved the quality of services and increased the opportunity to deliver to the poor.

The project also involved the rehabilitation and equipping of facilities, the training of workers and the entrenchment of high standard management systems.

2007

According to the World Health Organisation statistics, there approximately 314 million visually impaired people in the world and out of these 45 million are totally blind of whom 90 per cent are found in developing countries.

Cataracts have been listed as the major cause of avoidable blindness taking 47 per cent of the total causes. Age wise, the prevalence of blindness in children is about 10 times lower as compared to that in adults. Childhood blindness remains a high priority because of the expected number of years to be lived in blindness. Bearing in mind that about half of the WHO estimated 1.4 million cases of blindness in children below the age of 5 could have been avoided, Standard Chartered Bank made a decision to lead the way in the fight against avoidable blindness.

In Kenya, the Bank has been supporting cataract operations at Kikuyu Eye Unit and Trachoma eradication programmes in Ol Malo, northern Laikipia.

Kikuyu Eye Unit

Since its inception in 2003, all funds raised from the marathon have gone towards supporting our “Seeing is Believing” initiative at Kikuyu Eye Unit where we have funded all cataract operations for children under the age of five.

When we entered into this partnership with Kikuyu Eye Hospital back in 2003, the Eye Unit was doing approximately 40 cataract operations per year. The first year of partnership we raised this to 150 operations and in 2007 the hospital performed 1,000 operations.

Going forward, the Bank, in partnership with our implementing partner Christian Blind Mission will roll out its “Seeing is Believing” initiative to other hospitals across the country. Apart from Kikuyu Eye Unit, the other eye hospitals to benefit from the proceeds of the marathon are Sabatia Eye Hospital and Kwale District Eye Centre.

(Share of the Sib Money table here)

Ol Malo Trust

Trachoma is the second largest cause of blindness in Kenya. It is a condition of poverty and affects communities that have poor water supplies and sanitation as well as poor health services.

Northern Laikipia is one of the areas in Kenya with a high Trachoma prevalence rate. In the last two years, the bank has funded surgical eye camps in Ol Malo. In 2007, Standard Chartered donated Kshs.1 million towards the eye camps and a further Kshs.2million for the construction of a dam. Through the provision of clean water, the Bank hopes to achieve a long term solution and hopefully eradicate Trachoma in this area.

Recently, Standard Chartered launched a Trachoma intervention project in Siangan village, Samburu District. Samburu is another area with high incidences of Trachoma especially among children. The project involves prevention through education, provision of clean water and environmental improvement as well as cure through surgery and administration of antibiotics. We are committed to seeing this intervention to successful completion upon which the Bank will roll out similar projects in Samburu District which has the highest Trachoma prevalence rate in Kenya.

Machakos Technical School for the Blind

In 2007, Standard Chartered initiated a relationship with Machakos Technical School for the Blind in partnership with our Global “Seeing is Believing” Ambassador, Henry Wanyoike.

As part of the World Sight Day celebrations, staff raised money for the construction of a borehole at the school. The bank topped up the staff contribution, shilling for shilling, and with an additional amount raised by Henry, the construction of the borehole is now underway.

To take this partnership forward, plans are underway to undertake the upgrading of facilities in the school by prioritising the institution’s needs.