Panalpina Annual Report 2006

Social commitment: Helping people
see the future
Since 2003, in collaboration with
the Swiss Red Cross, Panalpina
has made substantial financial contributions
to a long­term program
to combat poverty­related blindness
in Ghana – with visible success.
Besides its direct commercial obligations to all
stakeholders, every company also bears social re­
sponsibilities that extend much further. A globally
active group must ask itself how and where it should
commit itself to improving humanity. Panalpina
decided at an early stage to focus its social sponsorship
on a single sustainable program to deliver
effective, measurable aid. To Panalpina, it is of
additional importance to contribute to the development
of a region in which it is active and knows
the local conditions well.
Since 2003, the Group has therefore been supporting
a long­term program to combat poverty­related
blindness in Ghana. This initiative is part of the
Vision 2020 – Right to Sight global commitment,
through which the World Health Organization (WHO)
aims to eliminate poverty­related eye diseases
throughout the world by the year 2020. Having
been active in West Africa – where these diseases
are widespread – for several decades, Panalpina
wishes to make an effective contribution to the
campaign.
Conducted by the Ghanaian and Swiss Red Cross,
the program has the long­term objective of providing
full, effective basic eye care at regional and
local levels as part of Ghana’s healthcare system.
Panalpina’s aim as a partner is to help to achieve
the ambitious intermediate objective of halving,
by 2010, the number of patients suffering illnesses
leading to blindness. Since the project began, three
regional eye clinics with local outstations have
been set up in collaboration with the Ghana Health
Service (GHS). By the end of 2005, these clinics
had already treated 193,000 patients, while outreach
teams had examined another 80,000 people
in rural areas, and 56,000 children in schools.
Medical treatment was provided for those who
required it.
While the infrastructure was successfully established
over the past period, with specialist medical
personnel being given basic and advanced training
and healthcare programs being set up, the year
under review saw a substantial rise in the number
of examinations conducted. In 2006, a total of
243,242 Ghanaians received treatment: 88,938 in
22 static clinics, 71,714 by specialists visiting rural
areas and 82,590 children during visits to schools.
In the same time, 1,533 cataract and 1,141 other
operations were conducted, and 555 volunteers
and school health teachers were trained. 2006
therefore marked another major milestone on the
road to achieving the objectives of Vision 2020 in
Ghana.
www.panalpina.com/society
Sustainable Growth
Panalpina Annual Report 2006 5