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COMMUNITY COMPASS: Standard Chartered helps blind students grow with charity

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During the weekend of Oct. 17 to Oct. 19, Standard Chartered Bank (Taiwan) Ltd (渣打國際商業銀行) initiated the charity drive, “Relay of Hope — Standard Chartered GROE 42,” in Taipei to purchase Braille books and computers for blind students in Taiwan.

The bank donated NT$1,500 for every kilometer participants ran on treadmills that bank staff set up for the event.

Sunil Kaushal (高恕年), president and CEO at Standard Chartered Bank (Taiwan), told the Taipei Times by e-mail why his company wanted to sponsor this event and help the visually impaired community.

“‘Seeing is believing’ is Standard Chartered’s global initiative, which aims to raise awareness of the visually impaired community and to care for and help restore sight for the blind in developing countries,” Kaushal said in his reply.

Last year, Standard Chartered Group raised more than US$10 million to help tackle avoidable blindness among 10 million people across 20 countries, Kaushal said, adding that the staff in Taiwan have raised more than NT$9 million (US$270,000) since 2004.

In an effort to help change blind people’s lives, Standard Chartered Taiwan sponsors visually impaired runners to take part in the Greatest Race on Earth (GROE) marathon series, held in four different cities — Nairobi, Singapore, Mumbai and Hong Kong — every year.

The bank also sponsors the Taiwan Ah-gan Visually Impaired Running Team, led by Chang Wen-yen (張文彥), Taiwan’s first visually impaired marathon runner, in the hope of encouraging more blind people to exercise.

This year, Standard Chartered Taiwan said it succeeded in taking its commitment to the next level with the charity drive, “Relay of Hope — Standard Chartered GROE42,” in Taipei, Hsinchu, Taichung and Kaohsiung. The number 42 in the charity’s name refers to 42km, which is the distance of a full marathon course.

Standard Chartered donated roughly NT$1,500 for every kilometer participants ran on the treadmills in the charities. The money is to be shared between the Taipei School for the Visually Impaired (TSVI) and National Taichung School for the Visually Impaired to purchase Braille books and computers to help improve students’ learning.

Kaushal said a Braille computer along with a monitor usually costs about NT$200,000 in Taiwan. The cost is so high that several students have to share one computer while in class.

The 42-hour non-stop treadmill activity held at the Vieshow (formerly Warner Village) plaza in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) from Oct. 17 to Oct. 19 was a success, Kaushal said, as it attracted more than 1,085 individuals, including more than 250 staff, who ran 1,283km in total, accumulating a donation of NT$1,924,500, which the bank rounded up to NT$2 million.

Standard Chartered also donated NT$1,500 for every kilometer ran by participants in the three relay events in Hsinchu (Nov. 1), Taichung (Nov. 9) and Kaohsiung (Nov. 15), which entailed a 42km relay on treadmills.

Kaushal said the bank wished to accumulate NT$3 million in donations after these four treadmill relays.

“Taiwan is a very important market to Standard Chartered,” Kaushal said. “In this global financial turmoil, we will stay focused on being the right partner to our stakeholders and to the communities in which we operate. This is why we brought, “Relay of Hope — Standard Chartered GROE 42” to Taiwan this year.”

Kaushal said Standard Chartered would continue to invest in Taiwan and care for the visually impaired community as part of the company’s global initiative “Seeing is Believing,” to bring new vision to the world with the marathon spirit in the Greatest Race on Earth.

The GROE marathon series and Seeing is Believing are two of the bank’s major community programs. GROE has been running in four cities since 2003.

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