Portal evokes eye donation pledges from 60k since 2013

Aurangabad: The concept of online pledges for eye donation is catching up across the country, with nearly 60,000 people giving consent to donate their corneas at the online portal of Vyankatesh Pariwar, an NGO here.
The NGO, launched by Kishore and Kanchan Soni, started eye donation campaign in 2000 with the aim of eradicating corneal blindness from the nation."My first step was to create awareness among the people" Kishore said.
We have realised that, in today's world, online facility to pledge eye donation would help reach out to masses across the globe and capture yet untapped corneal tissues, said Kanchan.
So, in 2013, we launched a website where people can fill donor registration forms to give their consent. So far, over 59,000 people have given their consent to donate eyes, said Kishore.
"We succeeded in bringing back eyesight of around 500 people. We are expecting the number of donors to increase so that more people are benefited," he said.
Kishore added, "People pledge to donate eyes after death, but they rarely keep their promise. There are emotional and social reasons as well as misconceptions among the people. We must educate them and remove these misconceptions. Many families are willing to donate if we approach them at the right time and convince them."
Hence, we have planned to increase communication with the donors. This year, we will organise seminars and workshops in remote areas as well. Our aim is to increase eye donations in the district to meet the demand-supply gap, Kanchan said.