Spreading light through eye donation

from here & there

There couldn’t have been a more appropriate way to celebrate a village school’s centenary year than by pledging the eyes of all the villagers for donation.

Such an event happened in 2008, when Mundigesara village in Uttara Kannada district became an ‘eye donors’ village’. Along with the residents of the village (200 people), their relatives and friends also pledged to donate their eyes at an eye donation camp.

Though eye donation is a noble act, people hesitate to consider it due to misconceptions. Mundigesara was not a different village until Saraswathi Madhukeshwara Hegde, a resident of the village, decided to donate her eyes. A cancer patient, she came across visually-impaired youngsters when she was undergoing treatment in Hubballi in the 1980s.

This prompted her to take this  decision. She died in 1990 and her eyes were donated. This inspired many others in the village to donate their eyes too. “My mother set an example. Later we teamed up to spread the message through awareness creation,” says Sanjay Hegde, a member of the village eye donation committee. Many other villages in the State have followed this village’s example.

For details, one can contact Sanjay Hegde on 9242127798.