STUDENT SUCCESS
2021 Boarding Captain Aly Sultan has developed an ingenious and altruistic way to maintain a connection to his home in Papua New Guinea. Following in the footsteps of his businessman father and ophthalmologist mother, Aly has started a social enterprise called Envision to help reduce cataract blindness in remote PNG villages.
Art for eyes
“Envision was my way of connecting back to Papua New Guinea as a boarder. I’m working with local artisans and providing them with a platform to share their culture through their artworks,”he said. Aly has connected four or five artists with eye care shops in Port Moresby,
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who have donated space to show paintings and handicrafts. Proceeds are channelled into sight restoration initiatives. “We work on a ‘boomerang’ concept, where the community is helping the community and it’s completely not for profit,” he said. “I email the artists and I visit the villages when I get home, but it works on the premise that I don’t tell them what to do; it’s about empowering them by opening up their reach. They’re very responsive to that because they know the benefits of the eye work we do. It’s definitely a mutual relationship that we work on, and I think that’s the strength of the Laila Foundation as well.”
