37 m people blind in world

A total of 37 million people in the world are blind though 75 percent of this blindness is curable and preventable.

Standard Chartered Bank has been working since 2003 for the people deprived of eyesight despite having eyes, aiming to restore sight of 28,000 people across the world.

Under the 'Seeing is Believing' programme in 2003, the Bank funded training of health workers and established Standard Chartered Operation Theatres and Children's Ward in Islamia Eye Hospital in Dhaka with a capacity to do more than 12,000 cataract surgeries per annum.

Now it aimed to eliminate preventable blindness with the support of Sight Savers International and Vision 2020. The programme will contribute to one million sight restorations in a three-year programme, ending in 2006.

The programme has also funded for the training of over 6,600 primary eye care workers who have been assisting 68,000 visually impaired people throughout the country.

It also initiated its 'Seeing is Believing' programme in Comilla and Narsinghdi with the help of Bangladesh Jatiya Andha Kalyan Samity from 2004 to provide free cataract surgeries to the ultra poor population.