Standard Chartered Bank in partnership with Operation Eyesight Universal has launched the �Quality Eye Health for All Project� under phase V of the Bank�s �Seeing is Believing� initiative.
The project is aimed at improving eye care, restoring sight and preventing blindness in the 10 regions of the country, was valued at 1.25 million dollars.
Mr Kweku Bedu-Addo, Chief Executive of the Bank said management of the Bank and its partners, with support from the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service, would be seeking to improve the eye health of Ghanaians by 2016.
He said the project would create awareness in all the regions; improve the comprehensiveness of the community-based primary eye health care by covering 75 per cent of the population in the catchment area.
�It will also provide ten hospitals, one in each region, with modern ophthalmic equipment,� he added.
Mr Bedu-Addo said the project is the Bank�s global community initiative, established in 2003 to celebrate the Bank�s 150th anniversary.
He said it was driven by staff, who raised funds and volunteered to raise awareness of avoidable blindness issues across the globe.
The Chief Executive said as a Bank, management was committed to balancing ambition and the pursuit of excellence in the way they do business.
By the end of Phase V of the project in December 2016, the initiative would have benefited and impacted a total of 13.8 million people in Ghana.
Ms Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Health encouraged the public to regularly check their eye sight.
She said government would put in place pragmatic measures to ensure that beneficiary regions make eye care delivery their priority and ensure that enough funding and monitoring are done to sustained the project.
As part of the phase VI of the project, Standard Chartered Bank together with its partner has constructed an eye care centre for the Ga South Municipal Hospital.
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