By Noimot Olayiwola/Staff Reporter

Over QR300,000 was yesterday raised towards helping eliminate avoidable blindness at a charity auction organised at Katara (building 12) as part of an event marking the 10th anniversary of Seeing is Believing - an initiative of Standard Chartered Bank and International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB).
The event, which was graced by Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, and several dignitaries, saw a number of artworks donated by Katara-based Anima Gallery and other items auctioned by Kevin Doyle, senior business development assistant vice-president at Sotheby’s.
The artworks, which included paintings, pottery, Arabic calligraphy drawings and mixed media portraits, were created by Qatari artistes such as Ali Hassan, Amal al-Aathem, Maha al-Sulaiti, Salman al-Malik and Yousef Ahmad.
Among the items auctioned at the event were an Arabic calligraphy on a 117 X 168cm portrait of acrylic on canvas by Hassan, which attracted the highest bid at QR80,000, while al-Aathem’s mixed media creation of 164 X 135cm fetched QR45,000. Other items included Youssef’s Palm Leaf Paper with Natural Pigment and al-Malki’s mixed media collage on paper.
During the charity gala, three Qatari artists demonstrated their talents live, creating works that were later sold during the auction. The artworks included al-Sulaiti’s pottery, Mubarak al-Malik’s painting (sold for QR4,500) and Ali Mulla’s painting (QR12,000).
Other items included in the auction were a limited edition of a lady’s clutch made by the British brand Anya Hindmarch (QR8,000) and a handmade Rug Star’s Playground Grass Green made using Tibetan highland wool and natural silk by Samovar Carpets and Antiques (QR55,000).
A fashion show by UAE-based designer Tanya Ashraf and sub-designer Suboohi Zubair under the label Roxx was another highlight of the night.
Speaking at the event, Countess Sophie - who is the patron of the initiative’s Vision 2020: The Right to Sight - recalled her experience working with other volunteers on past events while also expressing hope for the poor, especially children, with avoidable blindness.
She praised Qatar’s efforts in championing universal education for children, saying: “Qatar understands the importance of education by seeing it as the passport to the future, which is very evident in Qatar Foundation.”
Also making a speech, Standard Chartered Qatar chief executive officer Charles Carlson said the aim of the Seeing is Believing initiative was to raise a total of $100mn by 2020.
“Our aim is to raise this money for projects to tackle avoidable blindness, working in partnership with leading eye care organisations and non-govenmental organisations. We will fund the development of local eyecare capacity to provide sustainable and quality eyecare for millions of people with little or no access to services,” he added.
The official said since its launch in 2003, the initiative has reached more than 41mn people. “Seeing is Believing was established 10 years ago as a global fundraising initiative to tackle avoidable blindness. Back then, our aim was to raise enough money to fund 28,000 sight restorations - one for each member of staff at that time, through the sponsorship of an eye hospital in Bangladesh,” he recalled.
Carlson said there are some 39mn blind people in the world and 80% of the blindness is avoidable; also, almost 90% of the blind people live in low-income countries.
“A further 246mn people have moderate or severe visual impairment while a total of 1.4mn children are blind with a child going blind every minute. Less than 10% of the blind children attend school,” he added.