Three members of Standard Chartered’s Calgary office, the ‘Carbon Fiber Cowboys’, will be cycling in the 2014 Ride for Sight event, a 418 kilometer bike ride from Boston to New York on June 23 - June 25. Standard Chartered Bank is sponsoring a team of cyclists to complete the 3-day ride to raise USD$100,000+ for ‘Seeing is Believing’, a collaboration between the Bank and IAPB (the International Agency for Preventable Blindness). The Bank will match all funds raised by the cyclists.
To date, Seeing is Believing has reached 45 million people in some of the world’s poorest communities by giving them access to eye-care services, funding projects to prevent blindness and restore vision. 80% of the world’s blindness is avoidable. Incredibly, a person’s sight can be restored for as little as USD$30. Loss of sight often results in social exclusion, making blind people vulnerable to abuse, poverty and early death. Less than half of all children who lose their sight will survive to adulthood. The figures are overwhelming. Please give what you can, your contributions make an enormous impact. Help us to help others see by donating now.

Did you know that:
• There are 39 million blind people in the world.
• A further 246 million people have moderate or severe visual impairment.
• 80% of blindness and visual impairment is avoidable (meaning preventable or treatable).
• 90% of blind people live in the developing world.
• Globally, 1.4 million children are blind
• Tackling blindness is one of the most cost-effective health interventions. A sight-restoring cataract operation costs as little as USD$30.

Every time someone makes a donation, Standard Chartered will match it dollar for dollar – doubling the impact of the pledge.