Ceylon Cold Stores supports combating vision impairment

Ceylon Cold Stores PLC (CCS) in collaboration with John Keells Foundation conducted three cataract camps during the financial year 2018/19 benefiting disadvantaged communities in Horowpathana (Anuradhapura District), Sooriyawewa (Hambantota district) and Kaduwela (Colombo District), as part of its Vision 2020 programme.

A total of 448 persons were examined at the eye camps with the support of seven doctors and 41 staff volunteers from CCS. 124 out of the 189 individuals identified as cataract patients have already been facilitated surgeries through Vision 2020 Secretariat of the Ministry of Health.

“As a trusted consumer brand in Sri Lanka with a proud heritage of over 150 years of serving local and foreign consumers with excellence in the FMCG industry, Elephant House (CCS) is known for delivering a product portfolio rich in quality and value. The consumer centric organisation operating in the beverages and frozen confectionery categories has espoused optometry and vision related interventions as its strategic focus on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and has been an active partner and benefactor of the visionrelated initiatives of John Keells Foundation, the CSR entity of the John Keells Group,” CCS said in a media release.

The John Keells Vision Project, primarily an islandwide cataract initiative, is a long-term initiative of John Keells Foundation implemented in collaboration with Vision 2020 Secretariat of the Ministry of Health.

The John Keells Vision Project was launched in 2004 to compliment VISION 2020, a global initiative to eliminate the major causes of avoidable blindness by the year 2020 and to which Sri Lanka is a signatory. Under the project, disadvantaged persons across the island are screened for cataract and their surgeries arranged and funded, towards restoring their sight and thereby their quality of life and independence. Up to end February of the current financial year, a total of five cataract camps were organized by John Keells Foundation, resulting in the identification of 384 cataract patients and the completion of 263 surgeries in collaboration with the Vision 2020 Secretariat and CCS. The cumulative number of cataract surgeries completed under the project since its launch in 2004 is 13,379.