In Anna Nagar and surrounding localities, a group of residents campaign for eye donation. It’s no ordinary campaign: One of its key features is that volunteers of this group — called Club of Humanity — visit just-bereaved families to ask if they would want the eyes of their dear departed to be donated.
“It is difficult to ask people who are experiencing an immense loss in their lives to do something for others, but we are trained in doing this work,” says Mukesh Soni, a volunteer of the Club.
Four friends from the neighbourhood — M.B. Soni, Ravi Menon, Arun Kumar and M. Jayaraman — decided to start the Club when they learnt that awareness about eye donation in India was abysmal.
Thirty resident-volunteers are part of the Club, the youngest being 25-years-old and the oldest, 85-years-old.
As most of the residents are connected, they get to learn about bereavements in the neighbourhood.
For the volunteers, while talking to the bereaved, the challenge lies in demystifying eye donation and also tackling myths around it. “Many a time, we have faced a situation where the deceased would have pledged to donate their eyes, but their family members would be unwilling to give their consent to it. It’s important to get the consent of every family member, so awareness has to increase,” says Jayaraman, a resident of Collector Nagar.
Mukesh says that over the last one year, the Club managed to get six pairs of eyes that have given the gift of vision to some people. The Club has tied up with Rajan Eye Bank, which sends its van to the house of the deceased once the family has agreed to donate the eyes of the deceased.
“Eyes need to be removed within four to six hours of the person’s death. Until now, awareness-building activities are restricted to neighbourhoods in Anna Nagar, Mogappair and Kilpauk, but the Club has plans to scaling up by first increasing its volunteer base.
Volunteers are required to motivate people to pledge their eyes. The volunteers also distribute pamphlets, go on rallies and take up door-to-door campaign to spread the word about eye donation.
They meet every third Sunday at a store in Mogappair, where volunteers discuss the challenges they face and try to come up with new ways of spreading awareness about eye donation.
The Facebook page of the Club is expected to be up soon.
For details, call Mukesh at 9884135946 or Jayaraman at 9962210575.