Former CEC, Dr. S. Y. Quraishi Appointed Honorary Chair of Sightsavers (India)

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, Thursday, March 28, 2013 — (Business Wire India) — Dr S. Y. Quraishi , former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India, has been appointed as the Honorary Chair of the Board of Trustees for Sightsavers (India).

Sightsavers is an international development organization based out of U.K with presence in more than 30 countries and works to eliminate avoidable blindness and for providing equal opportunity to persons with visual impairments.

Great Honour

Expressing delight at the new honour, Dr. Quraishi, soon after taking over as the Chair of Sightsavers (India) Trustee Board, said, “I feel deeply honoured on being appointed the Chair of Sightsavers in India. It also bestows immense responsibilities on me by way of the commitment to the cause of Eye healthcare and mitigation of Visual impairment. I do look forward to working with the members of the Board and its team in India.”

It may be recalled that Dr. Quraishi has always been on the vanguard of social causes pertaining to Welfare of the Disabled as well as universal Education–both are the core mandate areas for Sightsavers.

Dr. Quraishi is known for his special contributions in social sector including Health, Education, Population, Drug abuse, and civil society action. He is also credited for his stellar work in the field of Gender, Women & Child Development, HIV/AIDS, Youth and Adolescent issues.

Commenting on Dr. Quraishi associating with Sightsavers, Mr. RN Mohanty, CEO of Sightsavers (India), said, “It is a great privilege for us to have Dr. Quraishi as our Chair. I am sure, his expertise and experience will immensely help Sightsavers in progressing towards the goal of eliminating avoidable blindness and providing equal opportunities for people with disabilities, across India,”

About Sightsavers:

Sightsavers is a global development organization working to eliminate avoidable blindness and to ensure that people who are irreversibly blind receive the support they need to lead lives of independence and dignity.

Registered in India as ‘ Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind ‘ under Bombay Public Trust Act 1950, Sightsavers has been in India since 1966 on the eye health domain and has since reached out to over 35 million people.

Today, Sightsavers partners over 100 organizations across 17 states in India bringing eye healthcare, educational support, counselling, training and leadership development to visually impaired people in some of the

Sightsavers works on a sustainable basis to promote lasting change by strengthening existing health systems; advocacy and influencing of governments by demonstrable best practices. They network with like-minded organizations to enable exchange of ideas and advocate the rights of the disabled.

Sightsavers believes in promoting indigenous technologies in eye healthcare and expand the outreach of health services in India.