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