NETRA DHARA

NETRADHARA is a mission providing vision for those suffering from Corneal Blindness. Eyesight, the one which is helping us read this, admire the beauty in the world, see our loved ones  has much more value than words can ever describe. While we find even a few minutes of darkness scary and hard to manage, there are thousands for whom the world has been always nothing more than just darkness. The only means of removing this darkness and bringing light and vision to these lives is through Corneal Transplantation

Even when Medical Science has come up with cure and care for many illnesses through alternative devices and methods, no such breakthrough has come yet for curing blindness. Corneal Transplantation is the only ray of hope in overcoming Corneal Blindness.Corneal Transplantation is a surgical procedure by which the damaged cornea of a blind person is replaced by the corneal tissue retrived from a recently deceased person. It is important to remember the fact that the healthy corneal tissue has to be taken within 6 hours of a person's demise, which latter can be transplanted for two  Corenal Blind people.

Even when most of us are eligible to donate our eyes, and even when some among us pledge our eyes, the final and most important step of donation fails to happen in many cases due to the lack of proper response during that critical time frame when the instance of death happens.

Understanding these facts and the need to educate more people about this, Sanmarg launched Eye Donation Forum through NETRADHARA. As a first step in the right direction Sanmarg had associated itself with Sankara Eye Centre, Coimbatore, an institution with years of expertise in this service. Within a short span from its inception, Nethradhara  had made significant strides in promoting awareness about the cause and  has already accounted for several  eye transplantations which has gifted vision for almost ten people. 

We have put in earnest efforts towards spreading awareness about this noble cause through house visits, conducting camps, circulating posters and handouts etc.Detailed leaflets are circulated among people to educate them about the importance of  Eye  Donation and to eliminate the fear  and misconceptions concerning eye donation and transplantation.The procedures and measures that are necessary in this regards are made clear by this.

Those who wish to bring light in the life of blind people, should willingly come forward to Pledge their Eyes.  But the pledging of eyes alone can't  guarantee that our eyes will be donated. While the fact remains that Eye Donation can happen even when one has not pledged their eyes (ie. through consent from the relatives of the diseased) we most times miserably fail to carry out even the eye donations of those deceased who had willingly pledged their eyes. The lack of timely and sensible response from people like us is the sole reason for such grave failure. 

This concern can  only be overcome if we take up the role of  "Vision Ambassadors ".  As a Vision Ambassador, we take the onus to remind the near and dear ones of the deceased about the Eye Donation cause whenever we get to know about his/her demise. We are bound to achieve two major goals by making such effort on a regular basis. Primarily we stand the chance of increasing the frequency of Eye Donations when we constantly voice for it. Subsequently it also helps to enlighten people around us about our deep desire for eye donation, which more likely will remind them to act upon it, on the day when we are finally laid to rest and our eye donation is supposed to happen.