An exemplary village in Eye donation

S Venkateshwari
The people of one village in Kanyakumari have set an example for the people of other villages by donating their eyes.
The number of people in this world who suffer from visual impairment due to accidents and disease is increasing day by day. Also, some people suffer from visual defects from birth.
In India, the number of blind people is more than 50 lakhs. Eye donation is the only way for them to regain their lost vision.  But despite the awareness of the government and many voluntary organizations, many people do not come forward to donate their eyes.
In this situation, everyone in Madathattuvilai village near Villukuri in Kanyakumari district has voluntarily donated their eyes. They have also donated the eyes of more than 350 people in the last 10 years.
Thomas, a resident of Madathattuvilai village, said, "In 2007, due to the efforts of Dominic and Sujan Kumar, who were parish fathers of Madathattu Vilai village, the youth here started eye donation.
After that, Thirukutumbam, Thiru Iyakkam was started by the people of the village. husband and wife are all members of our movement. We have about 40 members working together. Whoever died in our village, the sharecropper or the vice president of our movement would get information about them, and then when they contacted us, we would go directly to that house and see if their family needed any help and help them and then talk to their families and convince them to donate their eyes.

Then doctors from tirunelveli will come and get eye donations. We won't leave until they come and donate our eyes,  whether it's night or day. Children and adults have participated in this eye donation.  The eyes of an 8-year-old boy, a 12-year-old boy, and a 104-year-old grandfather were donated.


As of now, 369 people have donated their eyes in our town alone. If we take into account those who have donated eyes from outside through our movement, the number will cross 500. But we only maintain the number of eye donors from our village.
Up to  4 people can benefit from eyes taken from one person. We are doing this as a service because the poor people are benefiting from it.  Taking our village as an example, a similar eye donation has been done in our neighboring town for the past year.

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