MADURAI: He always keeps his eyes open, he has a vision for the field of eye care and propagating eye donation is his life mission. With a farsighted approach, he is actively involved sight care activities in a big way.
Mr.M.Veerasamy, a dedicated government ophthalmic assistant based in Madurai, is a proactive campaigner for the cause of eye donation and his relentless field work at various places in Tamil Nadu has motivated many families to donate eyes immediately after demise of any family member.
MAKE IT A FAMILY COMMITMENT:
Presently working as an ophthalmic assistant at Karungalagudi Primary Health Centre near Madurai, Mr.Veerasamy makes a fervent appeal to people to donate eyes to any eye bank ‘and it must start from every home like how we say that charity begins from home.’
“Mere pledging of eyes by filling eye donation forms in an eye bank is not at all useful. The actual thing we must do is to call an eye bank if a family passes away and for this the best thing is to have board in our home saying that we will donate eyes. By doing this, our family members / relatives/ friends can call eye bank immediately,” he said talking to ‘Lotus Times’ website on October 17th 2019.
BLINDNESS CONTROL PROGRAMMES:
Mr.Veerasamy, who is involved in the noble cause of eye donation, does lot of fieldwork talking to students, associations, organisations etc to take forward the message of National Blindness Control Programme and also explain about the initiatives of Tamil Nadu State Blindness Control Society.
“My work in this field began about 25 years ago when I wrote an article in a newspaper and the readers’ response was very good. Since then, I began clearing people’s doubts about donation and guide them to nearest hospitals/eye banks in their locality,” he explains.
GIVE SIGHT TO OTHERS:
Having done immense work for over two decades and received so many phone calls from many places for eye donation, Mr.Veerasamy is now more enthused to step up the work.
“See, we can give sight to others by donating our eyes after death. Through Eye Banks Association of India we are motivating people to voluntarily come forward. During the two-week World Sight Day celebrations from August 25th to September 8th every year, lot of public awareness programmes are conducted. Please remember that many visually challenged people are waiting for eye donors. So let us give life to them,” he appeals.
And, finally Mr.Veerasamy also stresses a point that eye care too needs lot of attention and early detection is a must to prevent permanent blindness. “Avoid self-medication and we must be very careful at the time of eye injury or pain etc,” he adds.
“Working for eye donation is a part of life. I thank my department, deputy directors of health and the Tamil Nadu government for encouraging me. Again I will say that mere pledging or filling a form is not enough. Calling the eye bank and donating is important,” he sums up.
