Mangaluru: As part of the ”The Eye Donation Awareness Fortnight”, the South Kanara Ophthalmic Society (SKOS) is organising “The gift of sight 5K run and 2K walk” on September 2. The event will start at Mangaluru City Corporation and will culminate in Nehru Maidan.
The SKOS, with the support from its benefactors, is holding the event to raise awareness and educate people about the eye donation and to debunk all the myths regarding the same. The main supporters of the event include Rotary International, Round Table, Samvitti Capital, Bharat Motors, Abharan Jewellers, Marian Builders, Citadel Developers and Zeusse Gym.
In a press release, President of SKOS Dr. Sudhir Hegde said, “According to the World Health Organization, corneal diseases are among the major causes of vision loss and blindness in the world today, after cataract and glaucoma. In India, it is estimated that there are approximately 6.8 million people living with blindness in at least one eye due to corneal diseases. Of these, about a million have bilateral involvement. It is expected that the number of individuals with unilateral corneal blindness in India will increase to 10.6 million by 2020. To reduce this burden, we have to raise the target for the number of eye donations in the country to arrange and organise for donor corneas. The only way to increase the number of eye donations is creating awareness among the general public to do it and give the gift of sight to two deserving corneal blind people.”
The society has involved all medical colleges in Dakshina Kannada district in this initiative. It aims at strengthening the eye bank network in the district. The society has also launched a unique awareness mobile-led wall-mounted vehicle, which will travel all over Dakshina Kannada district during a specified time and will play videos about eye donation and its importance.
