New Delhi: About 5,000 visually challenged people led 25,000 sighted people in a blind folded Walk on October 13 in 55 cities of five countries to encourage eye donation.
They also pledged to donate eyes and help the cause of the visually challenged people across the world.
In New Delhi, India’s federal Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Krishan Pal Gurjar blindfolded himself to express his solidarity with the visually challenged persons.
He was joined by social activist Swami Agnivesh and Bishop Kuriakose Bharanikulangara of Faridabad along with 1,000 people in the World Blind Walk on World Sight Day.
Several social and religious leaders and bureaucrats were involved the Walk in all locations. Health ministers led the Blind Walk in Hyderabad and Itanagar. Bishop of Varanasi and Cochin attended the Walk in their respective places.
Project Vision, a Bangalore based non-government initiative started by a Catholic priest, organized the largest eye donation campaign in the world. It inspired people in these cities to organize public awareness programs about the visually challenged people.
Besides all major cities in India, the walk was held in Colombo, Dallas, Kathmandu and Macau.
Implementing the theme of this year, World Sight Day by International Association for the Prevention of Blindness, Stronger Together, World Blind Walk brought together over 500 organizations across the globe from social, developmental, medical, academic and religious backgrounds on a single platform to push for a global movement on eye donations.
National Federation of the Blind, Eye Bank Association of India, Art of Living, Catholic Hospital Association of India and 104 health line of government were national partners of the program.
The concept of Blind Walk was developed by Project Vision through which sighted persons are given an opportunity to experience what blindness is through a one-kilometer blindfolded walk in a public place, led by visually challenged persons.
The theme of the Walk was ‘Feel being blind. Donate your eyes.’ Its objective was to create vision ambassadors, who would coordinate between the bereaved family and the eye bank in the event of death of anyone in their neighborhood or contacts.
Corneal blindness can be eliminated by developing vision ambassadors in the community. World Blind Walk will develop 25,000 such ambassadors.
Santhosh Rungta, general secretary of the National Federation of the Blind on behalf of the organizers, presented a memorandum to the Indian government to make 104 as a common number for the whole country for eye donation.
Minister Gurjar promised to take up the matter with the government.
In an overwhelming response to the World Blind Walk program was much more people than originally planned turned out to attend, said Project Vision founder director Father George Kannanthanam.
The Claretian priest from Bangalore founded the project three years ago to create a moment on eye donations. The goal of the movement is ‘let everyone see.’
The priest said the NGO will first push for eye donation on a global scale involving more than 500 organisations. “Eye donation is becoming a movement which is the objective of Project Vision. We need to scale it up in the future,” he added.