Eye Donation Programs
TPV undertook several awareness programs on eye donations for various groups and organizations in Bengaluru and Mangalore in 2014. All the programs were also aimed at gettingthem committed to making a pledge to donate their eyes. Many of them also came forward tobecome Vision Ambassadors who will carry this message to the community and act as a liaisonbetween the donor and the eye banks.
| Name of the Institutions | Vision Ambassador | Eye Donation Pledges |
|---|---|---|
|
Claretian Fathers(CMF) |
|
16 |
|
Vincent De Paul Society |
111 |
162
|
|
NSS Students, St Claret College |
|
27 |
|
CHAI Members |
|
143 |
|
Dias And Associates |
14 |
19 |
|
St Thomas Church |
671 |
1954 |
|
St Peter's Church, Doddaballapur |
48 |
130 |
|
Y'smen Club, Bangalore |
24 |
61 |
|
Assumption Church, Rajajinagar |
113 |
388 |
|
St. Joseph's Arts & Science College |
440 |
600 |
|
St. Joseph's Commerce College |
364 |
441 |
|
St. Joseph's Evening College |
266 |
305 |
|
St. Joseph's Arts & Science PG College |
175 |
275 |
|
St. Joseph's PU College |
375 |
859 |
|
St. Joseph’s Indian College |
325 |
550 |
|
Sanyasa |
27 |
52 |
|
IIS |
20 |
41 |
|
St. Anne’s College |
180 |
222 |
|
Chikabanavara Malayali Samajham |
|
200 |
|
MAGIS (AICUF – ALL INDIA) |
75 |
575 |
|
St. Aloysius College, Mangalore |
100 |
400 |
|
Miscellaneous |
26 |
35 |
|
Youth for Seva |
23 |
26 |
|
Bangalore Blind Walk - MG Road |
|
600 |
|
Bangalore Blind Walk - Jayanagar |
|
550 |
|
Bangalore Blind Walk - Yeshwantpur |
|
700 |
|
SMS Pledges |
|
1330 |
|
Elroy Pvt. Ltd |
|
32 |
|
St Jude Church, Karahalli |
|
100 |
|
TOTAL |
|
10,763 |
World Sight Day
We at the Project Vision observed World Sight Day 2014. We had a very good program with over 500 people who attended it and Sri Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare was the Chief Guest for the day.
Recommendations to the Government were headed by Dr. Fr. George Kannanthanam, Director of The Project Vision and Team comprising of:
Dr. Chandrasekhar Shetty —Member, NPCB,
Dr Mahabaleswar- President, KOS
Dr Solanki, President, BOS
Mr V S Basavaraju, DNA
We presented a set of eight proposals to the Government of India on the occasion along with Karnataka Ophthalmology Society(KOS), Bangalore Ophthalmology (BOS) and Disability NGO Alliance (DNA).<span “>
- Eyes of the children are not generally checked in their initial years. Eye Check-up for children to be mandatory as they enter the school system.
- Comprehensive Eye Screening of the poor by strengthening the existing infrastructure for eye-care at the Taluk at District levels.
- National Programme for Control of Blindness (NPCB) can use the cost effective SMS pledging countrywide for effective creation of awareness about Eye donation.
- Taking the cue from Karnataka, every state in the country should have a dedicated helpline number for the public to reach an eye bank. Karnataka has a dedicated 104 health helpline call number to reach an eye bank.
- Hospital based Cornea Retrieval is the best source for useful corneas. Parliament has enacted Required Request law mandating the hospitals to ask for eye donation. There is need for effective awareness creation among hospitals and doctors.
- Government could initiate Eye Registry on the lines of Organ Donation. This would help to effectively use the corneas and provide corneas on “First come First Served” basis.
- Eye donation to be made a norm in the society considering the large numbers waiting for the cornea transplant through a movement promoted by the Government.
- Creating mechanisms to ensure that the required request law mandating hospitals to ask next of kin of the deceased about eye donation and register the reply on death certificate is implemented.
Presidential Address, HON. Sri Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said that “blindness is one of the diseases that the Government of India has identified to be tackled with special attention. More than legislation, greater awareness and social and religious movement is effective in promoting eye donations that can benefit a large number of people. Concerted efforts from a small group of committed can lead to great results in addressing the issues of the visually challenged”.
Vote of thanks was given by Mr. L Subramani, Sub Editor Deccan Herald.
Presidential Address, HON. Sri Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said that “blindness is one of the diseases that the Government of India has identified to be tackled with special attention. More than legislation, greater awareness and social and religious movement is effective in promoting eye donations that can benefit a large number of people. Concerted efforts from a small group of committed can lead to great results in addressing the issues of the visually challenged”. Vote of thanks was given by Mr. L Subramani, Sub Editor Deccan Herald.
World Sight Day Awards
Despite our gained knowledge, sadly, our efforts are not always successful but we have few eminent persons amidst us who have understood their difficulties, recognised their abilities and learn how to co-operate and communicate with them in a social as well as hospital environment. They are born with an ability to change someone’s eyes and today there are heroes for many people around the world. We have instituted awards to honour people who have been diligently working day and night towards the betterment of the Visually Challenged. This year 2014 WORLD SIGHT DAY AWARDS were given to:
Antoniamma who is 66 years old has taken care of all who were in need more than her life for past 13 years. She has been tremendously proven what real human being is and she is a living example who thought us a lesson that nothing is impossible. We all love to see the whole world with our eyes, she made it possible for more than 3000 people who would love to see the world and she is been the heartbeat for many by raising funds for heart operations by welcoming them to their life.
As we all know everyone work hard day and night for their basic need and for their daily bread and Antoniamma has worked hard to feed more than 20 people every day without fail. She is the right example for live and let live.
Mr. Gurudev who has his own team in Doddabellapur who believes to see the beautiful things in this world who also believes that others who cannot see should see the beauty of this world. He and his team from past 2 and a half years have successfully made it possible to collect 294 eyes and given it to Dr. Raj Kumar NetraBandara eye bank to help those who cannot see the world.
He really appreciates those children who have given him eminent support by informing about people after death and this made possible for Mr. Gurudev because he and his team has conducted awareness programmes in the nearby schools. He made sure to those who need eyes with a statement “ I am there when you smile and when you cry because when you smile your eyes shows that u smile and when you cry your tears reaches your smile.
Nowadays online shopping is booming the market to buy anything you wish just one click away. Electronic Engineer Mr. Jayaraman made it that convenient and that easy to gain or pledge eye in just one SMS or call. As part of NayanaJyothi trust Bangalore based Jayaraman was overwhelmed by the number of eye donors who had registered through a website which he had launched 4 years back.Wanna Pledge your eyes send and SMS. Get eyes donated when you leave says Mr. Jayaraman who collected over 100 cornea through his organisation called Nayanajyothi.
Ms. Antoniamma- for organising 3000 Cataract Operations
Mr. Gurudev and Team - for nearly 300 Cornea Collections
Mr. Jayaraman -for 100 Cornea Collections and Call Center no.104
Vision 15
- Over 200 Visually Challenged persons had a special New year experience
- In all we had around 450 including guests & members present
- We had a special program organized only for them
- We didn’t have any Chief Guest they were the main guests for the day
- A new year cake was cut by the visually challenged to mark the celebration organised at the St Joseph’s college
- 4th January was also Louis Braille day.
- His life story was presented to thank him
- For making life easy for the visually challenged through the Braille
- Music from Divine Melodies was the main entertainment for the program.
- Shoonya group of performing artists kept them happy with games & traditional art forms like dollu.
- Several Visually Challenged persons also exhibited their talents during the program.
- We had over 50 Volunteers from AICUF and Chavara Church.
- Everyone enjoyed a sumptuous meal to celebrate VISION’15
They walked back home with a gift hamper worth Rs.1000 each.The gift was meant to make life easier for them in 2015:
- a white cane to get them to move easier
- a talking watch to ensure they know that time
- a backpack to make them easily mobile
- a shawl to take care of this cold season
Special Thanks to:
St. Joseph’s College for providing the space
Praxis, an NGO for providing the food
Divine Melodies and Shoonya for the music and fun
Visually Challenged Book
A book on the visually challenged persons who have done exceptionally well in life is being compiled by The Project Vision. This is a book on high achievers among the blind (an edited volume containing short biographies on blind achievers. The objective is to give hope to the visually challenged. This must motivate them to do better in life. We compile the life stories of around 15 of them from all around the country – about three pages for each person, as a biographical presentation.The proceeds from the book will go entirely to support programs for the visually challenged through The Project Vision.
Cataract Operations
The Project Vision has been able to organize for cataract operation for over 3000 persons sofar. Most of them are socio economically marginalized persons who cannot afford to go for acataract operation otherwise. Camps to identify such were conducted and patients taken for theoperations. Small groups were taken directly for such check-up and operated. Project Drishtiand Mahaveer Jain Hospital were the main partners in this program. Both were glad to havepersons ready for such interventions. It was a completely free procedure.
Ms Antoniamma coordinated this effort for The Project Vision. The fact that 60% of all visuallyimpairment is caused due to cataract makes it imperative that we focus our attention on thisgroup. The detection and treatment of such cases is a step towards tackling this wide problem
SOCIO ECONOMIC REHABILITATION PROGRAMS
All blindness cannot be set right. Therefore The Project Vision developed activities to help the permanently blind to live a better life through socio economic assistance. Education, training, job placement, housing,marriages, self-employment and so on are the ways to provide them a new lease of life. Suresh was born blind and he says, “My parents had no words, but only tears to see me without sight. They thought my world would be empty and dark without any happiness and full of challenges.
Suresh learnt mobile service and wanted to earn a living repairing mobiles and a computercenter. He needed a computer to start.TPV heeded to this request by Mr Suresh and provided him a computer. Mr Jayaraman cameforward to donate a computer. Mr Suresh now makes a livelihood with the computer centre.
Several persons who are visually challenged have been helped with education assistance, employment opportunities, housing help, aids and appliances and so on. About 300 persons were provided with white cane, talking watch and other essential materials for making their daily living easier and more comfortable.