Britain’s Countess of Wessex has called on big businesses to do more to help charities.
The 50-year-old royal – the daughter-in-law of Queen Elizabeth – believes some global companies "fall far short" of their social responsibilities and has urged them to come up with fundraising strategies to help "people and the planet."
Speaking at a conference in Qatar, the Countess – also known as Sophie of Wessex – was quoted by the Daily Express newspaper as saying: "It’s easy for the senior execs, or indeed any employee to wriggle off the hook when the committee has had its say, and the bottom to the top fundraising can fall into the ‘well it wasn’t my first choice, or it’s up to them’ category of lack of total engagement."
Sophie, who is the global ambassador for the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness and patron of Vision 2020, flew to Calcutta in India in 2013 to see first hand the work carried out by the sight-saving charity, Orbis.
She explained: "I have seen for myself the eye clinics, hospital theatres, doctors and health workers many whose work is being supported by Seeing Is Believing.
"More importantly I have met patients for whom a life of darkness or even death is no longer the sentence it once was. I have seen the smiles and the looks of incredulous wonder spread across the faces of many individuals as their sight is restored and they can dare to hope."
She added: "This is only one example of how a company has taken a cause to its very core and done something extraordinarily meaningful.
"I would remind you that you are in the business of making fortunes, we are in the business of changing fortunes."
Countess of Wessex urges businesses to do more charity
