Maharashtra Ophthalmological Society has organised a landmark programme on Eye donation awareness across the state. It witnessed the statewide launch of the programme at the hands of Chandrashekar Bawankule Guardian minister and Padmashree Dr Vikas Mahatme, MP Rajya Sabha and KMM Prasanna IG Nagpur.
More than 2 lakh patients are added to those already blind due to corneal disease, or Injury. Corneal donation and corneal transplantation is the only cure informed Dr Gopal Arora President of MOS. We are achieving only 50,000 eye donations every year, inspite of India being such a large country and home to one-fifth of blinds. On the contrary, our neighboring country Srilanka has 100% Eye donation informed Dr Arora.
There is an urgent need for warlike effort on the national scale, as well as in Maharashtra which currently ranks at the 6th position. The MOS has taken a giant stride on 3 community projects, diabetes, Glaucoma and now Eye donation awareness.
As a part of this, conceptualised cycle rallies, walkathon, Car sticker of eye donation and awareness program on Radio, TV, in colleges and social groups are being undertaken in all 36 districts of Maharashtra
The crowning effort is the short film on Eye donation, produced and roles played by Eye surgeons for which the team needs applaud for their stupendous efforts.
This years program is aimed at educating and erasing myths of the general public regarding eye donation. More important is the consent of the first dependent of the deceased than the pledge card itself.
Hence, this year the theme of the program was MOS EYE DONATION MASS PLEDGE across the entire state to take Maharashtra to number one position and help restore the sight of blinds!
Chief guest Chandrashekhar Bawankule appreciated the endeavors of Maharashtra Ophthalmological Society in taking such tremendous efforts in creating public awareness & encouraging public for the eye donation. He emphasised that such programs are the need of the hour if we have to remove the backlog of corneal blindness. He assured all the help required from the government regarding this noble venture.
Guest of Honour Padmashri Dr Vikas Mahatme released a very unique car sticker and posters created by MOS for generating awareness of eye donation amongst the public. These were distributed to all those presents as well as to all the ophthalmic fraternity all over Maharashtra. Dr Mahatme also congratulated all the Ophthalmologists of Nagpur & Maharashtra for taking up such needful activity.
The highlight of the program was the presence of various religious leaders urging their community to pledge for eye donation.
Various religious leaders viz. Subhash Kotecha- Jain community, Rev Barne- Christian community, Majid Parekh- Islamic community and Kulwinder pal Singh – Sikh community were present
Dr Bhayyasaheb Paranjpe and Dr Anil Gedam condolences were offered and appreciated for donating eyes. Dr Shekhar Paranjpe and Kishor Thuteja were appreciated for setting examples and promoting eye donation. Dr Anand Pangarkar Secretary of MOS proposed a vote of thanks. Dr Mohana Majumdar was the master of ceremony.
Prominently present were Dr Rafat Khan Treasurer MOS , Dr Rajesh Joshi President Vidarbha Ophthalmic Society, Dr Viral Shah President Ophthalmogical Society Nagpur,Dr S C Karandikar , Dr Prashant Agnihotri, Dr Rekha Khandelwal, Dr Mala Kamble, Dr Krishna Bhojwani, Dr Manoj Oberoi, Dr Kush Jhunjhunwala President IMA and staff of LMH , IGMC,GMC, Vivekanand mission, Madhav Netralaya and Akshar eye institute.
Various associations like All India Ophthalmology Society, Eye bank association of India, IMA Maharashtra State, AMS, AMF, Rotary international 3030, Lions international, JCI Nagpur medicos we’re part of this mega awareness program.
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