CHENNAI: The lure of SMS amongst the youth has proved a viable number puller when it comes to marketing, contests, opinion polls and what not. “So, why not use it for a good cause like eye donation?” asks Jayaraman, who launched the SMS eye donation service during a rally at the Marina Beach on Sunday morning. As part of his Nayana Jyothi trust, Bangalore-based Jayaraman was overwhelmed with the number of eye donors who had registered through the website he launched last year. Explaining how the mobile platform is the easiest form of reaching out to the youth in the state, he says, “We act as a common facilitator for bringing about eye pledges. Once someone registers with us, we notify the eye bank in the concerned city and they follow up with the necessary paperwork.”However, taking a step further, they also send SMS alerts and mails to those registered every three months to keep their pledge fresh in their memory as well as remind them to spread the word. “Most people who pledge their eyes forget all about it later. With our alerts, it will be reasonably fresh in their minds,” he adds. The system is fairly simple, all one has to do is type ‘EYE’ followed by their name and city before sending it to 9944313131. No preceding zero is required for someone living in Karnataka and TN. “We are looking to expand the service throughout the country,” he reveals.The service was launched at a mass eye donation awareness rally organised by Rajan Eye Hospital, Rotary Rajan Eye Bank and Rotary Club of T Nagar and had over a 1,000 student participants. “We were overwhelmed by the fantastic response from the students, considering it was a Sunday morning,” said organiser Dr Mohan Rajan. What really got the students going as they marched from the Gandhi statue to Kannagi’s relief in stone, was the announcement of the SMS service and the GPRS eye donation site — m.nayanajyothi.org. In an instant, the mobiles were whipped out and a sea of students began texting and browsing to check the system out. “We have got over 1,200 eye donation pledges this morning alone,” says an overjoyed Dr Rajan.The rally was flagged off by Assembly Speaker D Jayakumar and small screen actor Ajay Ratnam. But once the organisers said that hardly “10 pairs of eyes were donated for the 90-odd people who die in Chennai everyday,” the Speaker stepped up to make an announcement, “With the CM’s permission, we will hopefully adopt a resolution for all the members of the Assembly to come forward to donate their eyes in September.” As this marks the beginning of the National Eye Donation Fortnight, several other events and awareness drives are expected to happen, sayd Dr Rajan.
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