Date:03/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/03/stories/2009010355150500.htm

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

Pledge your eyes, light up a face

Staff Reporter

Bharathiar University’s community service project for this Republic Day

Students to visit houses on January 3, 4 and 5
The target is one lakh pledges

COIMBATORE: For the third consecutive year, Bharathiar University will implement a novel community service project on January 26.

After the “Padithathai Pirarukku Padikka Koduppam” in 2007 and “Kaitharikku Kai Koduppom” in 2008, the university will take up the “Vizhi Koduthu Oli Koduppom” for 2009.

The project will be executed in collaboration with the Lions Club International.

Vice-Chancellor G. Thiruvasagam told presspersons here on Friday that nearly two lakh students of the university and its affiliated colleges in Coimbatore, Erode, Tirupur and the Nilgiris, would try to collect one lakh eye donation pledges on Republic Day.

“Students will visit the nearby houses on January 3, 4 and 5. They will meet the family members of each house and explain about eye donation and the procedure involved in giving the pledge and on executing it,” Mr. Thiruvasagam said.

After a few days the students would visit the same house as a follow up.

They would carry with them a printed certificate that would mention the family member’s name, address, and a pledge saying that he or she would “like to donate my eyes after me.” The phone numbers and address of Aravind Eye Hospital, Lotus Eye Care Hospital, Sankara Eye Centre, and The Eye Foundation, would be mentioned in the bottom of the certificate.

If the eyes of a deceased person had already been pledged, the family members should contact one of the hospitals mentioned in the certificate so that the corneas could be removed for transplantation.

Once the person signed the certificate willingly, it would be laminated and hung in a prominent place at the person’s house by the students on January 26. The Vice-Chancellor said the target was one lakh eyes. “While trying to convince the public, the students and NSS volunteers themselves will get motivated to pledge their eyes. This will be a positive result of the exercise,” he said.

The “Vizhi Koduthu Oli Koduppom” project replaced the “Veetuku Oru Cheddi Vaippom, Veppathai Thaduppom” that was initially planned. Since the university was unable to mobilise 10 lakh saplings, the project was shelved.