/By AzerNews/

By Sara Rajabova

Renowned Japanese scientist Akio Kanai has started his next vision aid mission to Azerbaijan.

The team of the six optometrists from Japanese Company Fuji Optical, headed by Kanai, departed from Baku for Western regions of the country to conduct free of charge eye screening and eyeglasses distribution for internally displaced and vulnerable population of Aghdam and Tartar regions.

Winner of the 2006 Nansen Refugee award Kanai is head of the Japanese private company, Fuji Optical and has been a generous private donor of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the last four decades, UNDP Azerbaijan said.

Since 1983, when the company started its humanitarian activity among Indo-Chinese refugees in Thailand, Fuji Optical has donated more than 145,000 pairs of eyeglasses to refugees, IDPs and other vulnerable people in six countries of Asia, Europe and Africa, conducted vision aid missions to four out of those countries through UNHCR.

Azerbaijan is one those countries and this year it will be 11th such mission of the Fuji Optical Company to the country.

About $2 million has been spent by Fuji Optical to accomplish its humanitarian activity in Azerbaijan since 2005. Around 43,000 pairs of high quality optic eyeglasses and other items have been brought to the country as in-kind donation to the UNHCR operations in Azerbaijan.

In total, close to 20,000 refugees, IDPs and other vulnerable people have benefited from the free of charge vision screening services facilitated by the UNHCR Representation in Azerbaijan together with the respective central and local authorities.

This year, Fuji Optical has donated 4,000 pairs of eye-glasses and other vision and hearing aid items to UNHCR and targets to screen about 2,000 IDPs, refugees and other vulnerable people during the 10 days humanitarian mission.

The essence of the humanitarian undertakings of the Fuji Optical is not limited to providing sole humanitarian aid, but also demonstrating support towards the displacement challenge faced by Azerbaijan and the work of UNHCR. Since UNHCR is a specialized UN agency mandated to lead and co-ordinate international interventions for the protection and well-being of refugees and IDPs, it continues to raise awareness and facilitate all efforts aimed to support the displaced people in Azerbaijan.

The bloody war, which flared up in the late 1980s due to Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor, left 700,000 civilians of Nagorno-Karabakh and the regions adjoining it, as well as the regions bordering with Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh without homes.

They are temporarily settled in more than 1,600 settlements across 62 cities and regions of Azerbaijan.

Moreover, 250,000 Azerbaijanis were expelled from Armenia and became refugees due to Armenia's ethnic cleansing policy after the emergence of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijanis who had displaced from their homes as result of the brutal war were forced to live in refugee camps, tents and wagons in very difficult conditions.