Donate Money, Donate Eyes – A step towards a better Society

Donate eyes to the people who cannot see. A study in 2017 showed that about 17.8% of the world population is partial to the completely blind. Eye donors donate their eyes for the needy people. After their death, the eye is extracted within 4-6 hours and stored in an eye bank and used in a corneal transplant when required.

These eye banks are generally organizations run on the behalf of the government or by any powerful and influential community or person. They work as the intermediary between the donor and the recipient. These eye banks need lots of funds to run on a daily basis. The main source of income for them is directly from the owner and partially from the people donating money to them. Since they do not charge any fees, they generally become broke within 2-3 years of their inauguration.

In 1992, EBAA and WHO cofounded an organization called the Eye Relief Fund (ERF), which is an autonomous body associated with handling all the influx of donations coming from al l over the world. Nowadays, to set up a new eye bank, the permission of ERF is necessary.

Money donated to the eye banks and eye hospitals for helping the needy who cannot see is a very good cause. Individual money donors can do so by the following process as suggested below-

1. Payroll donation – A scheme generally employed for the middle-class people who want to help the needy in any way they can. This process involves getting your name enrolled with the respective eye bank or hospital, following which you will be asked to sign a non-profit agreement. After this, the eye donor can donate a fixed amount of money from his monthly payroll. This process has a few benefits

• The donor is exempted from tax for the portion of the money he/she donates.
• In the case of most blind money donors, they get a free eye replacement after their age of retirement.

2. Blast donation – This scheme is generally set up for rich people who like to donate in a single blast. They also have to have their name enrolled with the eye bank or hospital, following which they are asked to sign a non-profit agreement and given permission by the ERF. In case of donations over 1,000$, the donor also needs to get a legit certificate from a bank showing that the money donated is not counterfeited currency.

The money donated by people is used by the eye banks and hospitals in buying required chemicals, performing eye surgeries and sometimes used in cryopreservation research.

The money that we donate not only helps the needy, but also gives us a certain sense of pleasure that we were able to be of help for certain individuals. This causes the growth of feelings like brotherhood and sisterhood among fellow donors.

Every single penny and dime we donate is important, so it is not important how much one donates but the honorable act of donation itself.

VisionMate Foundation is a Ngo campaigning for eye donation. We make the pledge process simple by entering the profile in an online form. The Pledge Card will be emailed to the person automatically.