A fundraiser organised by Standard Chartered Bank in Doha to counter
vision impairment managed to raise more than QR200,000 through
sponsors and sale of paintings by local artists. By Umer Nangiana
My heart will go on, played on violin by Ali Hassan Alalaiwi, a visually-impaired musician, set the tone for the evening. What ensued was a generous contribution of funds to help prevent avoidable blindness in the world. As many as 39mn people across the world are blind and 80% of this blindness is avoidable.
“I transform my feelings into music. The music gives my feelings an expression,” Alalaiwi, the Bahraini musician told the audience after his performance. “Nothing is impossible in this world and nothing can stop you from achieving your goal,” was his message to the world and it reverberated well at the charity dinner organised by Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) for raising funds for its worldwide initiative ‘Seeing is Believing’.
At the end of the evening featuring art, music and a fashion show, the initiative managed to raise more than QR200,000 through sponsors and the sale of paintings by local artists. Through auction, a painting by local artist Jameela al-Ansari fetched QR20,000. Two autographed scooters by the World MotoGP Champions donated by Domasco sold for more than their value.
Over 3mn cataract operations and surgical interventions, over 10.1mn patients screened, almost 611,000 pairs of spectacles and low-vision devices distributed and over 3.9mn people have benefitted from Vitamin A deficiency supplementation and treatment for river blindness (Onchocerciasis).
These are some of the many ways, how ‘Seeing is Believing’ has made a difference in the lives of people with blindness in particular and towards the well-being of the world in general. More than 53mn people have been reached through medical interventions, health education and improved access to eye care in their communities.
Since its launch in 2003, the initiative has trained over 145,000 health workers besides benefitting 25.3mn with health education. “Basically it started in 2003 when we were thinking of celebrating the 150th year of the bank. As an organisation you can do one or two charities or you can spread out, but we decided we are going to do something meaningful,” Charles Carlson, the CEO of SCB, told Community. Speaking about how the programme, launched by bank staff, has grown, Carlson said the bank operates in several countries of Asia and Africa where there is a lot of avoidable blindness.
In his remarks, welcoming the guests at St Regis Hotel, the SCB CEO told the audience that the bank has funded 96 ‘Seeing is Believing’ projects in 26 countries. The bank matches all fundraising and donations, dollar for dollar, he added.
“When the money is disbursed, none of it goes on administration. If you give me $30 then I put in $30, and if it is $60, we know $60 will be (spent) on two adult blindness cases. You would not lose $5 or $10 in administration,” Carlson explained.
Providing facts and research findings, the bank’s chief executive officer said the estimated economic cost of lost productivity from avoidable blindness is $200bn annually. Tackling avoidable blindness has a clear impact on the economic power of households.
“We are in India, Kenya, Bangladesh and several other countries where staff can go out and make a difference. In my case, I mean personally to me it is not too often that you get a chance where you are given the opportunity to make a difference,” said the CEO.
About engaging the community in fundraising, Carlson said they go and talk to clients like Hussain Alfardan who help them through St Regis and through their contributions. That is it what is really about engaging with the community and doing something good out of it, he added.
In Doha, the bank started fundraising last year and a lot of clients came forward. “When you go to them, people like Hussain Alfardan are the first ones who want to help because they see this. We have Ali Mustafawi from Qatar Building Company and Jaidah family who will immediately jump on to this when you ask them for help,” added Carlson.
“My job in Qatar is to engage the community to collect funds; my colleagues in Kenya will be involved in dispersal. Whoever comes with a good idea or the right proposal gets it. So I think it is pretty widely spread in the regions where it is most needed,” he explained.
He acknowledged the good response to the charity dinner and the auction held in the evening. “It was great. It is not really about money. It is much about engagement and awareness. Before I got involved in this, I didn’t know that 80% of blindness is avoidable. I always thought you go blind and that was it,” said Carlson.
The evening was hosted by Khalifa Saleh Haroon, the leader behind the social web portal ILoveQatar. Known for his online personality Mr Q -- your friendly neighbourhood Qatari -- Khalifa offered to host the event as his personal contribution towards ‘Seeing is Believing’.
The evening featured auction of paintings by local Qatari artists including Ali al-Mulla and Dana Ahmed al-Safar who also made two live paintings at the occasion.
The other artists were Muna Bu Jasoom, Amal al-Jaber and Kevin Waller, a Doha-based British expatriate and the Managing Director of ILoveQatar. The event also featured a fashion show by Roxx Fashion. The official stylist for the event was Blue Brush Hair Studio, founded by Sheikha Muneera Saud Khalid al-Thani.
