Eye Bank

EYE DONATION AWARENESS CLUB (EyeDAC) For breaking religious and social taboos surrounding Eye Donation, a group of likeminded people committed to promote Eye Donation Awareness was found on 4th June 2004 and was named Eye Donation Awareness Club (EyeDAC). The Founder President was Mr. Mahesh Bareja the then Principal of Delhi Public School, Ranchi and the Founder Secretary was Mr. Baijnath Mishra the then Resident Editor of leading Hindi Daily of Jharkhand, Prabhat Khabar. All the Executives were nominated from different print media and electronic channel. Reconstitution of Executives of EyeDAC was done on 19th August 2018. The current President of EyeDAC is Mr. Anuj Sinha, State Editor of Prabhat Khabar and the current Secretary is Mr. Rajesh Tomar, Head of News Nation. EyeDAC organises various awareness programmes from walkathons to Blindfolded Marathons since 2005. The continued eye donation awareness programs and yearly Run for Vision, Blindfolded Marathons encouraged people and families to pledge their eyes and even donate the eyes of their deceased family members. It has turned the onetime small campaign into a mass movement. Encouraged by the efforts of the society, many Past Hon’ble Governors of Jharkhand, Smt.Droupadi Murmu, Shri Ramesh Bais, Shri Ved Marvah, Shri M. O. H. Farook,  Shri Syed Ahmed, many Chief Ministers of Jharkhand, Hon’ble Shri Babulal Marandi, Shri Arjun Munda, Shri Shibu Soren, Shri Hemant Soren and many Health Ministers of Jharkhand, Shri Bhanu Pratap Shahi, Shri Ramchandra Chandravanshi, Shri Banna Gupta have not only participated in our Eye Donation Awareness Programs but also pleadged  for eye donation. This has brought a massive positive response towards eye donation. KASHYAP MEMORIAL EYE BANK It was Late Dr. Bharat Prasad Kashyap, Professor and Head of the Department (Eye) R.M.C.H Ranchi who realized the grave situation of corneal blind people. He met Dr. Peter Anderson of Australia in one of the blind relief camps and the ball started rolling. With the help of the Australian doctor Late Prof. Kashyap could procure six corneas from Australia. Prof. Bharat Prasad Kashyap grafted those six corneas on 1st Jan. 1979. Looking at the positive results a number of efforts were made to revive the posthumous cornea donation but for some or the other reasons nothing actually materialized. To break the taboo of Eye donations Dr Kashyap duo launched the first ever eye donation campaign in the then unified Bihar Jharkhand, to dispel hesitation regarding eye donation. Their efforts bore fruit, when on 4th January 1996, they received the first posthumous eye donation of Late Harishankar Prasad in the state. Later they got institutional membership from Eye Bank Association of India in year 2002 for Kashyap Memorial Eye Bank which was also founded in the year 2002. 32 YEARS OF CONTINUED EFFORTS IN THE FIELD OF EYE DONATION Since 1991 after launching first ever eye donation campaign in the then unified Bihar Jharkhand, continuous work was done in this field to dispel hesitation regarding eye donation through yearly marathons involving youth of Jharkhand, regular essay and painting competitions on eye donation theme among schools children and awareness programs involving priests of different religions. During covid times innovative Digital Eye donation awareness was initiated which involved more than ten thousand students and it was found that digital platform is as effective as print and electronic media. We also found  that a high percentage of people are aware of eye donation but they are not willing to do this. We tried to inspire the students, youth power of Jharkhand through multiple webinars. IMPACTS OF KASHYAP MEMORIAL EYE BANK Eye Health Strategy Kashyap Memorial Eye bank is a charitable trust has been working with partners in entire Jharkhand to eliminate preventable and treatable blindness. Dr B P Kashyap and Dr Bharti Kashyap have been active in Jharkhand since 1991 with strategic focus on these and Eye Donation. Since 2019 Dr Nidhie Gadkar Kashyap is heading the Cornea services and with her team she has started doing latest cornea surgeries that is DSEK and DMEK regularly in Jharkhand providing relief to corneal blind people of Jharkhand in a big way. MISSION Protecting sight of people of Jharkhand by taking care of preventable and treatable causes of blindness. Don’t destroy your eyes, donate it to light up some one’s dark life. VISION Making Jharkhand as a unique state where no one is blind from avoidable and preventable reasons.