Drushti Daan

An Eye Donation Awareness Camp was conducted in XIMB by the Social Responsibility Cell in collaboration with "Drushti Daan" on 4^th September 2010.

"Drushti Daan" is a voluntary, not for profit organization, founded in 2002, with the objective to promote eye donation and combat corneal blindness. Since its inception, it has been actively spearheading eye donation & banking activities in Orissa. They are actively involved throughout the year in awareness programmes of this kind as well going to campuses all around the country. They are well known for creating widespread public awareness on eye donation and their successful Eye Banking activities such as collection and distribution for transplants. Drushti Daan is registered with the Health Dept of Govt of Orissa to function as an eye bank under Transplantation of Human Organs Act and is a Life member of Eye Bank Association of India.

In Orissa this organization functions from the premises of LV Prasad Eye Institute near Patia in Bhubaneswar. There are a lot of misconceptions regarding corneal blindness being cured by corneal transplants which the organization seeks to clarify. The donor corneas are sourced from human cadavers in a painless process which was also demonstrated in a presentation shown to the students. They also explained the whole process being done only after appropriate consent was taken from the donor families. They also have a Hospital Cornea Retrieval Program wherein trained grief counselors are posted at various hospitals to motivate families to donate corneas of their dear ones after their demise. Eye banking includes retrieval, evaluation and distribution of free of cost corneas to the corneal blind. They have eye banks in a lot of locations which help the needy by providing corneas for free for the blind.

It was a very interactive session as the students also showed a lot of interest and asked pertinent questions thus clearing lot of doubts and myths. The students were sensitized to the issue in a proper way. The session also generated a lot of enthusiasm and empathy for donating corneas as a lot of the students also pledged their eyes through a form distributed. Thus the event was a grand success and we thank Drushti Daan for enlightening us on the issue.