National Eye Donation Fortnight (August 25th to September 8th) was observed in right earnest by the CU Shah eye bank. A multi-pronged approach was adopted to reach out the critical message of eye donation/eye pledging to the general public.
The fortnight’s activities got off to a flying start with a human chain and rally of school children from the Perunthalaivar Kamarajar Government Girls High School and TV Nagar Educational Society School organized jointly with the Tiruvallur District Education Department. These highly spirited children holding placards and raising their voice for the cause of eye donation/eye pledge on the busy roads of Ambattur and its OT bus terminus drew a lot of public interest; the event also received good media coverage. Other initiatives included free airing of awareness messages and a talk on eye donation by Dr Rama Rajagopal, Deputy Director, Corneal Services, Sankara Nethralaya on National Eye Donation Day (8th September) in the immensely popular Suryan FM radio channel. Dr Rama Rajagopal’s expert opinion on the subject, dispelling myths on eye donation and educating people on its critical need were also communicated to a large reader base through interviews in popular Tamil periodicals Kumudham Snehidhi, Nam Thozhi and Otunar Osai. A strong visual appeal for the cause of eye donation/pledge was made to a cross section of people including patients, escorts, staff and general public with the aid of creative posters placed at vantage points at all Sankara Nethralaya Centers in Chennai.
As part of its efforts towards involving Corporates in spreading awareness on eye donation and reaching out to a large number of people, members of the CU Shah Eye bank held talks with leading Engineering and Infrastructure giant M/S Larsen&Toubro to reach out to their worldwide workforce for a mass eye pledge.
Anandha Vikatan the popular Tamil weekly magazine extended its timely help to CU Shah Eye bank in its awareness creation efforts by a free featuring of a Q&A session on eye donation with its Eye Bank In-charge on YouTube, in its online edition.
These concerted efforts towards creating awareness and underlining the critical need for eye donation/pledge apparently did not go in vain, its fruits reflected in the form of 450 eye pledges to the CU Shah Eye bank during this period.
Human chain for eye donation
IBNlive