Vision

Selvi is a 8 yr old girl studying 5^th grade in Govt Primary School at Kotturpuram. Her parents, who are daily wage laborers’ work in a construction company here. Selvi is a bright student and her aspiration is to be a doctor . Her parents are so proud of their only child and love her so much. On the eve of her bday , they all went to Parrys to do some shopping. And on their way back, got into a share auto rickshaw. Minutes later, the auto they r traveling ramped into a high speed truck and the last time selvi saw was the sight of her mother hugging close to her for safety. As someone said, death comes with no warning, this accident killed her parents and left her blind .

Dear TM & guests, selvi not only became an orphan, but also lost her eye sight due to corneal blindness. What is Corneal Blindness? Cornea is the clear tissue covering the front of the eye. It is the focusing element of the eye. Vision will be dramatically reduced or lost, if the cornea becomes cloudy. In accidents , infections, malnutrition, chemical burns the cornea is affected and results in this type of blindness. As per data from the Eye Bank Association of India Annual Report 2012, there are around 12 million Indians suffering from Corneal blindness across the country.

The good news is this can be cured with cornea transplantation, where they remove the damaged cornea and replace with the healthy one. There are many Eye Banks across the country to facilitate Eye Donation. Eyes are removed only after death. This should be done within 6 hours of time of death. The family member of the deceased can call up toll free 1919 to connect the nearest eye bank and a team of medical personnel will reach there for surgical removal of eye balls or the cornea . The whole process wouldn’t take more than 20 min and there is no disfigurement. We have a population of over 100+ crores, and around 1 crore deaths every year. Even if 2 % of the deceased’s family decide to do eye donation, corneal blindness would be eradicated from our country.

Every year around 25000 new cases are registered according to report from Aravind Eye Care, premium eye research institution located in Madurai. And last year only around 28000 transplants were done across the country. So the need of the hour is to educate our friends and family on the potential benefits of eye donation. One pair of eyes can bring life back to 2 souls. Let your eyes change someone’s life. Selvi got operated last October and now she is able to see after living in the darkness for 2 years. How many others like her need to go through that trauma anymore. If we all resolve today to pledge ourselves to donate eyes and spread this word, we can eject light into thousands suffering from corneal blindness.