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Seeing Is Believing

Seeing is Believing (SiB) was an ambitious, internationally-recognised partnership between Standard Chartered and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) that focused on tackling avoidable blindness and visual impairment across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America.

Video Transcript

Between 2003 and 2020, Standard Chartered raised USD104.2 million, enabling SiB to reach more than 250 million people across 38 countries. These funds were invested in supporting the eye health sector and increasing access to sustainable, quality local services across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America. This included building innovative eye health delivery solutions.

The long-standing partnership demonstrated what can be achieved when corporations and non-governmental organisations work together with governments and local communities and commit to a long term strategy to meet an ambitious goal.

Standard Chartered no longer raises or matches funds for Seeing is Believing. Standard Chartered, IAPB and implementing partners will, however, remain focused on delivering projects until the end of 2020.

Reach

Seeing is Believing has changed the lives of millions of individuals and families, making it easier for many to return to education and work. As a result, this has boosted local economies and strengthened communities.

Select the arrows to view the impact of Seeing is Believing.

Cataract surgeries - 5.1 million sight-restoring surgeries.
Spectacles 1/78 million pairs of spectacles dispensed
Training health workers - 374,578 health workers trained in eye care
Eye screenings - 37.5 million people screened for visual acuity
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Learning

SiB has funded more than 200 eye projects worldwide. A lot has been learned over the course of almost two decades of programme implementation.

Project managers and eye care practitioners from all over the world have documented their experience of implementing SiB projects including influential child eye projects, providing valuable insights, highlighting challenges and how they were overcome and documenting lessons learned. Explore these learning articles and discover:

  • how projects worked to bridge the divide in eye care
  • made progress in integrating eye care into national health systems
  • built sustainability into their projects by tackling accessibility, affordability and availability barriers.

Research

Are you designing a new eye care project in Africa? Interested in best practice in diabetic retinopathy? Want to explore the barriers to spectacle uptake in different parts of the world?

SiB has funded over 80 research studies from Rapid Assessments of Avoidable Blindness (RAABs) and Knowledge Attitude and Practice (KAP) studies to Evaluations, PhD’s and other innovative work. These studies can help you design quality eye care programmes which are rooted in evidence, enhance your project delivery and improve eye health advocacy.

Select the arrows below to view the featured research studies.