Qatar Building Company (QBC) is an official Gold Sponsor of the day-long Golf Tournament held by Standard Chartered Bank at the Doha Golf Club to raise money to help to tackle avoidable (preventable or treatable) blindness. It is a collaboration with International Agency for Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) and leading international eye-care NGOs, to help provide restorative eye surgeries (e.g. cataract operations), training of eye care doctors, and building of training facilities and vision centres.

Key Facts on Blindness*:

  • There are 45 million blind people in the world.
  • There are 314 million people who are seriously visually impaired.
  • 80% of blindness is avoidable (preventable or treatable).
  • A person goes blind every five seconds.
  • A child goes blind every minute.
  • 60% of children die within one year of going blind.
  • 90% of avoidable blindness occurs in the developing world.
  • Two thirds of the world’s blind are women – with serious implications for childcare.
  • Without effective, major intervention, the number of blind people worldwide has been projected to increase to 76 million by 2020.

    • *SOURCE: Standard Chartered website November 2012.