Spokesman Report

KARACHI: On World Sight Day this year, Indus Motor Company (IMC) pledged to fight childhood blindness in Pakistan. Fast forward December 2021, IMC and Al-Ibrahim Eye Hospital (AIEH), sealed the alliance by signing an MoU, at the company’s head office at Port Qasim. The company’s Chief Executive, Ali Asghar Jamali and AIEHs Director, Dr Abdul Fatah Memon, signed the document.

The Childhood Blindness Prevention Program functioning under IMCs Neighbouring Community Uplifting Program, aims to mitigate the risk of blindness and visual impairment, pervasive amongst both school going and out-of-school children belonging to low socio-economic communities, residing in adjoining villages supported the company.

The free vision screening camps, will be setup at The Citizens Foundation schools, where children from these villages study under IMCs Toyota Goth Education Program. For out of school children, camps will be set up at the villages. Post screening, children with refractive error will be provided free spectacles and medicines wherever needed, whilst patients requiring further treatment/surgery will be referred to AIEH.

Commenting on the partnership, IMC Chief Executive, Ali Asghar Jamali, expressed, “Vision is one very important blessing of the Almighty. Three quarters of all blindness can be prevented or treated during childhood which if not addressed timely, can have adverse effects for the poor, especially in Pakistan. The two exciting aspects of this collaboration with AIEH, is capacity building and more importantly, creating awareness of childhood vision impairment, which will have far reaching results in the communities.”