TANZANIA will benefit from $ 2Million (Sh. 3.2 billion) to be donated by Standard Chartered Bank in collaboration with its partners through its ‘Seeing is Believing’ Program which aims to liberate children under 8 years old from visual impairment in three East African countries, it has been learnt. The amount of money is part of the total $ 6.25 million to be disbursed to three countries (Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda) to help facilitate the project which aims to provide eye treatment to reach out at least four million children in these countries starting from January 2013 and ends in 2016. Speaking in an exclusive interview over the phone in Dar es Salaam, the bank’s Corporate Affairs Manager, Beda Michael Biswalo said that, the program will also build referral networks to identify and correctly diagnose and treat children with eye problems. He said the initial payment for Tanzania would be directed to its ten regions in the country to start with as a pilot project. He mentioned the regions as Iringa, Kigoma, Manyara, Mwanza, Mbeya, Rukwa, Tabora, Morogoro, Kilimanjaro and Dar es Salaam. He said that, the Standard Chartered Bank in collaboration with its partners has invested such a huge amount of money as part of the bank’s social and corporate responsibility and specifically will target the unprivileged communities. He said, out of the total amount, his bank will contribute the largest chuck covering 80 percent of it all, while the remaining 20 percent will be contributed by their two partners a consortiums led by the Christian Blind Mission (CBM) and the Brien Holden Vision Institute based in South Africa respectively. Elaborating the aim of the project in general he noted that, the move is to directly benefit 4 million children under 8 years old through screening, treatment for basic eye problems, eye surgeries and issuing of eye spectacles.
Three weeks ago, Standard Chartered Bank Tanzania office convened a meeting alongside with the program to celebrate the launching of the East Africa Child Eye Health project which took place at Mnazi Mmoja Municipal grounds in Dar es Salaam city. The occasion brought together 15 different organisations under the banner of ‘Seeing is Believing’ a model for the delivery of child health which will directly benefit children under 8 years across East Africa region. The project launch was attended by delegates from Kenya and Uganda respectively and their host Tanzania. From Kenya the delegation was led by the country’s Minister for Medical Services Dr. Samwel Kambi, while the Ugandan delegation was led by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health Dr. Samwel Kabikule. The Bank’s Chief Executive Officer for Tanzania Jeremy Awory said in his key note address that the project is part of the global $ 100 million (Sh. 150 billion) drive as the bank’s contribution towards achieving vision 2020 which targets to completely eliminate preventable blindness among children. The bank is optimistic that as an international institution, they have the capability and a strong network to help tackle these social challenges facing local African communities as part of their social and corporate responsibilities. However, he said adding that, the progression in the Seeing is Believing initiative to support children eye health care is a great opportunity which is aimed at protecting children from blindness and visual impairment and further to enhance the lives of younger generations. The four year program is in partnership with the Ministries of Health, Medical and Education which encompasses the three East African countries who would be working in collaboration with its two partners in order to achieve the desired goals. Statistics shows that, in East Africa alone, an estimated 8,500 to 10,000 children live with blindness a disability that has serious effects on the educational and employment opportunities for children. Since its launch in 2003, $ 50 million has been raised and used to tackle avoidable blindness in disadvantaged communities across Standard Chartered’s market in Asia, Africa and the Middle East continents. The target is to raise 4 100 Million by 2020.
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