CHENNAI: Friday afternoon at the Rajan Eye Care Hospital saw the felicitation of families of eye donors as part of the Rotary Rajan Eye Bank’s Eye Donation Awareness Rally 2022 in the presence of Dr Mohan Rajan, district chairman, and Dr Sujatha Mohan, director, Rotary Rajan Eye Bank. The event was hosted to observe the National Eye Donation Fortnight, held from August 25 to September 8.
“The National Blindness Society of India and the District Blindness Society of Tamil Nadu initiate such eye donation programmes to bring awareness among the public of this noble cause. Since we have a huge population in India that is suffering from blindness, we need to make everyone understand the importance of donating vision,” shared Dr M Ravishankar, senior consultant, and chief medical officer.
The event, held at the hospital’s conference hall, also witnessed the distribution of privilege cards to staff and patients of Tanker Foundation, as well as the distribution of prizes for the winners of a children’s painting and drawing competition, hosted on August 28.
An eye donation rally at Elliot’s Beach, Besant Nagar on September 4, and a quiz competition for school children at Rajan’s Eye Care Hospital on September 7, will be organised. Rotary Rajan Eye Bank organised the event along with the Rotary Club of Madras T Nagar and Rajan Eye Care Hospital. The Bank has performed more than 4000 corneal transplant surgeries free of cost till date.
Table tennis star and winner of the Padma Shri and Arjuna Awards Sharath Kamal attended as chief guest. “I have done more than thousands of eye donation meetings. Sharath pledged to donate his eyes and inspired the crowd. Over the years, the number of people donating eyes is also rising because of their idols. We see this as additional support to our hard work,” commented Dr Ravishankar on the tennis player’s act.
Part of the purpose of the rally is to raise awareness about diseases that affect the cornea leading to blindness, second only to cataracts in terms of importance. The need for awareness of the magnitude of corneal blindness, and that it accounts for 10-20 per cent of instances of blindness, was emphasised.