Standard Chartered's blue/green band

Standard Chartered's blue/green band

It was inspirational to read the front-page article in The
Jakarta Post on July 2 entitled White, red, yellow, purple,
whatever band you fancy, describing various awareness building
and fund-raising initiatives of many organizations by selling
rubber wristbands for good causes.

The article also mentions Standard Chartered Bank who gives
out green bands to all employees. This statement is incorrect.
The blue and green wristband sale is one of our initiatives to
raise awareness of curative eye treatment and to raise funds for
cataract surgeries and other eye care treatment in various parts
of Indonesia identified by our NGO partners under the umbrella of
"Seeing is Believing" campaign.

The "Seeing is Believing" campaign is one of Standard
Chartered Bank's initiatives as part of the global Corporate
Social Responsibility program which began in 2004. The goal is to
raise enough funds for one million sight restorations over the
next three years by providing eye care treatment and cataract
surgeries globally in cooperation with Sight Savers International
and Vision 2020.

Indonesia has been chosen as one of 10 countries to implement
the "Seeing is Believing" program (Note: 37 million people in
the world are blind, yet a staggering 75 percent of blindness is
avoidable. A 1993/1996 survey identified that 1.5 percent of
Indonesian population is blind and 52 percent of those are due to
cataracts).

This program is passionately supported by Standard Chartered
Bank staff who have volunteered to individually purchase and/or
sell these blue and green wristbands to any caring individual who
wishes to participate in supporting this initiative.

The wristbands are not freely distributed to our employees as
it would deviate from the original intention to help our target
beneficiaries in Indonesia who need curative eye treatment. It is
our wish to continue the "Seeing is Believing" campaign and raise
funds by selling as many blue and green wristbands and would like
to welcome participation from any caring individuals who wish to
join this campaign to make a difference.

SINTA SIRAIT, Head of Corporate Affairs, Standard Chartered Bank Indonesia,
Jakarta

Note: Thank you for the clarification.

--Editor