SABIC achieves 1,00,000 milestone under SABIC’S vision care program for less privileged school children

New Delhi: SABIC, a global leader in diversified chemicals, reached a milestone of touching the lives of over 1,00,000 government/government aided school children in Delhi, Gurgaon, Bengaluru, Vadodara, Chennai and Mumbai through its “They See, They Learn” eye care initiative and targets to reach 2,00,000 children by December 2017. As part of SABIC’s ongoing corporate social responsibility commitment, the eye care initiative focuses on education by vision testing and providing spectacles free of cost to children found with correctible vision.

Among the 1,00,000 school children whose vision testing was done, 11 percent required spectacles. An additional 3 percent required further testing for other eye ailments and were referred to district hospital.

A celebratory luncheon was organised by SABIC to mark the occasion in the presence of His Excellency, Dr. Saud bin Mohammed Al-Sati, Ambassador, Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia to India at The Leela Palace Hotel in New Delhi. Mr. Amar Sinha, Secretary (Economic Relations), Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India was the Chief Guest of the event.

His Excellency, Dr. Saud bin Mohammed Al-Sati, Ambassador, Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia to India said,“ I am proud of SABIC, a leading Saudi global corporation, for their corporate social responsibility initiatives focusing on education and healthcare.The SABIC team has demonstrated their ability to conceive and successfully execute this large-scale project in multiple cities across India. I look forward to their continuation of this journey to achieve much more of their noble mission.”

Mr. Amar Sinha, Secretary (Economic Relations), Ministry of External Affairs (Govt. of India) congratulated SABIC on achieving this significant milestone, expressing hope that, “Saudi –Indian relationships can be furthered by more successful partnerships between companies which understand each other’s cultures and society deeply.”
Speaking on the occasion, Janardhanan Ramanujalu, Vice President, South Asia & ANZ, SABIC, said, “I would like to thank the various Government agencies involved, our NGO partners, the school Principals and teachers who devoted their time and the SABIC volunteer team for the successful implementation of our CSR initiative. It is heartening to see that we have achieved a milestone of 1,00,000 by expanding the initiative to an all India level while meticulously executing this initiative at such a massive scale. This initiative is cost efficient, effective and the success of this event lies in the kind of impact it has made to the lives of thousands of schoolchildren. We hope to continue our efforts and put back to work the immense knowledge we gained in this project and achieve a much larger milestone.”

SABIC embarked upon the Eyecare initiative “They See, They Learn” in 2014 and till date, has successfully increased its total reach to over 1,00,000 children across six cities in India where it operates – Delhi, Gurgaon, Bengaluru, Vadodara, Chennai and Mumbai. This initiative aims to facilitate equal opportunities at further education for children with correctible vision. The project cycle involves vision testing in the school and providing spectacles free of cost as per prescription to the children. Where required the child is also referred to a specialist and helped in getting proper treatment from the hospital.

With employee engagement at the core of SABIC’s corporate social responsibility, 300 SABIC employee volunteers across India spent over 10000 hours volunteering for the “They See, They Learn” initiative in last two years, working closely with the program partners and supporting with on-ground logistics.

SABIC’s various other successful CSR programs in India, aligned with its CSR RAISE (Reputation, Audience, Innovation, Strategy, Endurance) strategy, include countrywide blood donation drives, reconstruction of schools in Bengaluru and Vadodara, sponsoring less privileged youth for residential courses in injection moulding operator program in Central Institute of Plastics Engineering & Technology (CIPET) Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Bhubaneshwar and the restoration of lake in Bengaluru. To read more about SABIC’s CSR strategy and programs, please visit https://www.sabic.com/en/sustainability/corporate-social-responsibility