Dialog partners Vision 2020 – Program to eliminate avoidable blindness

Wednesday, 22 April 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

From left: Dialog Axiata PLC Group Chief Executive Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medicine Secretary Dr. D.M.R.B. Dissanayake and Health Services Director General Dr. P.G. Mahipala Sri Lanka’s premier connectivity provider, Dialog Axiata PLC, partnered ‘Vision 2020’, a joint program by the World Health Organisation and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness to eliminate avoidable blindness amongst citizens. The Global Vision 2020 program consists of an international membership of government agencies, non-governmental organisations, professional associations, eye-care institutions and corporates around the world. In Sri Lanka, the program is spearheaded by the Ministry of Health, who aims to reduce avoidable blindness through the implementation of a sustainable national program as part of the National Health System. Since its inception in 2007, the Ministry of Health in Sri Lanka has made significant progress in preventive and curative eye care services in the island under the Vision 2020 program. Dialog Axiata PLC donated a sum of Rs. 6.25 million to the fund for the provision of free spectacles to patients in Sri Lanka under the Vision 2020 program over the next two years. The agreement was signed in Colombo last week, and over 10,000 custom-made spectacles will be distributed free under Vision 2020 following this donation. “Information and access to data are critical in the modern milieu, and our philosophy for inclusion mandates the extension of life-enriching services to non-traditional or under-served segments. Through our partnership with the Vision 2020 program, Dialog hopes to assist in providing the gift of sight to thousands of Sri Lankans, which in turn would provide them equal access to information and opportunity,” said Dialog Axiata PLC Head of Group Corporate Office Michael de Soyza. As part of its philosophy to drive digital inclusion amongst all segments, Dialog makes a particular effort to extend its services, which are applicable and affordable to those with physical disabilities and special needs. Dialog’s commitment and support to the hearing and speech impaired through the establishment of the Ratmalana Audiology Centre in 2007, and ‘Talking Hands’ – the special mobile package for the hearing impaired serve as examples of the company’s long-standing commitment to inclusivity and to serve all segments of the population.