VIJAYAWADA: A person will continue to live even after death by donating his/her organs, believes Dara Karunasree from Vijayawada, who is on a mission to provide vision to those with visual impairment due to corneal damage. According to her, two lakh corneas are required annually for visually impaired persons, but only 45,000 corneas are available. She established Karuna Eye Bank in Vijayawada in 2017.
Nearly 3,000 corneas have been collected from donors with her initiative. Of them, nearly 1,000 corneas were collected through the Karuna Eye Bank.A 70-year-old cornea receiver, Appalanarasamma of Bhimavaram, says she had no money for eye transplantation, but Karunasree funded her travel, medicines and surgery.
Karunasree worked in many organisations, including Lions Club International and Walkers’ Club International. Now, she has launched an eye donation movement by organising over 500 awareness camps in various colleges and schools across the State. She has appealed to the government to include a lesson on eye donation in school textbooks.
Speaking to TNIE, Karunasri says they provide corneas to LV Prasad Eye Institute, Sankar Netralaya in Andhra Pradesh, Vasan Eye Hospital in Hyderabad and Agarwal Eye Hospital in Chennai.Additionally, she collects leftover food from functions and events for her food bank named Amruta Hastam. So far, she has donated food to about 38 lakh needy since 2017.
A member of the Eye Bank Association of India, she encourages the public to donate organs. So far, 75 bodies have been donated to Sidhartha and NRI medical colleges with her initiatives.Families of 10 brain dead persons have donated organs through her organisation. She has received a an award instituted by the Department of Women Development and Child Welfare in 2017. She also secured a place in the Wonder Book, Everest Book and Miracles of Records for cornea collection in 2014, and Telugu Book of Records in 2013.