25,000 People Walked Blindfolded For Raising Awareness On Eye Donation
What if you were asked to walk blindfolded for a kilometer guided by a visually impaired person? Would that spark a strong sentiment in you to pledge your eyes? Possibly, yes.
World Blind Walk an initiative organised by The Project Vision (TPV) to create awareness on the need for eye donation was held on 13 October, the eve of ‘World Sight Day’ across 55 locations spread in five countries including United States, China, Sri Lanka and Nepal and India.
The initiative in a unique way was planned to make sighted people walk one kilometer blindfolded being led by visually impaired. The experience gives a completely new context for both the audience as well as individuals who take part in this walk. This exercise aims at having individuals both- bystanders and participators to pledge their eyes after death.
About 25,000 people in blindfolds participated by walking the one kilometer distance and further pledging their eyes.
Various organisations from social, developmental, medical, academic and religious backgrounds aligned their interests towards pushing for eye donation. Around 500 organisations were a part of this event globally.
Blindness is one of the most distressing human situations and sadly one of the disabilities affecting 285 million people globally. World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that around 246 million people have low vision and 39 million people are blind globally.
Around 80% of all visual impairment can be prevented or cured globally.
George Kannanthanam, Founder, TPV lived for 12 years with people who had lost their sight completely due to leprosy, HIV or were born visually challenged. This experience provoked him to spend the rest of his life working for welfare of visually challenged people and thus in 2013 he established TPV.
“Despite having about 750 Eye Banks across India, eye collection has been significantly less. Sadly, eye donation is not a part of our social or religious customs. Owing to this, families are reluctant in donating eyes after the death of their dear ones. In many cases we see that the promise made by the pledger is let down by relatives due to emotional stress or religious practices.
According to data available with Eye Bank Association of India (EBAI), in 2015-16, about 53,600 corneas were collected in the country but only 22,838 were utilised. Medical practitioners are forced to discard the corneas due to poor quality or prevalent disorders present in the eyes. For a successful cornea extraction the window is six hours after the death occurs.
The first three Blind Walks were conducted in Bangalore in 2014 during the Indian Eye Donation Fortnight.
Talking about the role of corporate houses in the cause of TPV, Kannanthanam said, “We are looking at four things from the corporates – Spreading awareness about eye donation to all employees
– Making work places disabled friendly
– Providing opportunities for the visually challenged to work
– Financial support under CSR for activities to benefit the visually challenged.”
Apart from organising blind walk TPV also promotes people to become vision ambassadors who act as facilitators in the communities. By coordinating between the bereaved family and eye banks in the event of death they not only have the knowledge but also are aware of the process involved.
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