Novel Concept Motivated
A novel concept, by which people will be motivated to donate eyes to give&aposlight&aposto lakhs of visually handicapped persons will be launched here on January 4 by Bharathiar university jointly with Local Districts of Lions International. This project would ensure that donors&aposeyes would be harvested and sent for corneal transplantation in five select hospitals in the region, University Vice-Chancellor Prof G. Thiruvasagam told reporters here. The programme, targeted at enrolling at least one lakh families, is titled as&apos Vizhi koduthu Oli koduppom,&apos(give light by donating eye), he said.
Pointing out that only 25,000 eyes are donated each year in India, as against more than 2.5 lakh required, he said that students of affiliated colleges would take out a three-day door to door campaign from that day and convince people and enroll as many people as donors as they could. Ravichandran, Governor of District B-1 Lion International, said the programme&aposs unique feature was that after receiving the consent, a laminated certificate, with contact numbers of hospitals, would be displayed on the walls in houses, so that any person or relative can contact the hospital when a donor dies. In Tamil Nadu, hardly 1,000 eyes are donated in a year, Ravichandran said.
