The speakers at a meeting organised on the occasion of the eighth anniversary celebrations of VEBART Trust and Mohsin Eye Bank stressed on the need to create awareness on eye donation and to motivate people to pledge their eyes.
Andhra University Vice Chancellor Beela Satyanarayana, who participated as chief guest, said that donating eyes was a noble deed. It’s perhaps the only donation that could be done even after the death of a person.
To drive home his point, he asked the gathering, “Can we keep our eyes closed for a day? “We get images of what we had seen before we had closed our eyes,” he said making the participants wonder what it would mean to be sightless throughout one’s lifetime.
Prof. Satyanarayana, who is also a teacher, said that what couldn’t be explained to students through classroom lectures could be easily understood by them when they see the demonstrations or experiments. He commended the efforts of Dr. A.V.N. Chetty, who was instrumental in the setting up of the eye bank, and Chairman of VEBART Trust Kasim S. Mehdi for funding the project.
Trustee’s plea
Associate Director of L.V. Prasad Eye Institute Usha Gopinathan, who is also the President-elect of the Eye Bank Association of India, recalled that though Indian eye banking was about four decades old, until recently the primary focus was on quantity and not quality.
The Eye Bank Association of India had popularised the Hospital Cornea Retrieval Programme (HCRP) and trained volunteers to motivate people in hospitals to donate their eyes after death.
Dr. Usha Gopinathan, who is also a trustee of the VEBART Trust, recalled the efforts of Mohsin Eye Bank in creating awareness among the public as also those employed in hospitals in and around the city on the importance of eye donation. She called for public support to eliminate corneal blindness.
Mr. Kasim Mehdi, in his report, said that the eye bank has been working as community eye bank and was distributing tissues to corneal surgeons and hospitals like Regional Eye Hospital, Visakha Eye Hospital and L.V. Prasad Eye Institute.
A total of 260 audiovisual programmes were conducted for various sections of society as part of the awareness programme. Mrs Padmavathi Satyanarayana, wife of the Vice Chancellor, participated as guest of honour. Trustee I. Venkata Rao announced a donation of Rs.50,000 to the trust. Anniversary celebrations chairman Dr. Chetty, VEBART Secretary Arisetty Sreerama Murthy and trustee C.V. Gopal Raju spoke.
